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lincolndjarin · 5 months
Text
Best Kept Secret
chapter twenty five : wedding bells
ao3 link ✿ series masterlist ✩ main masterlist ✧
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pairing : bodyguard!Din Djarin x afab!princess!reader
rating : 18+ mdni
word count : 11.7k
summary : a plan to finally leave Naboo is set in motion.
warnings, etc. : language, smut, angst, canon typical violence, allusions to sexual assault, threatened sexual assault (a guy threatens reader, and is gross), vomit (reader pukes once, it isn't described in detail), oral f!receiving, p in v, creampie, din's breeding kink, teasing, orgasm delay, probably other things i missed sorry
a/n : genuinely sorry about how long this took, it's been a pretty rough month for me and it's been hard to focus, especially when i'm also trying to keep up with kinktober, i promise in november. my upload schedule will do back to normal. i've sort of been dreading writing this chapter for a long time just because i've known how i've wanted it to go for so long and i just wanted it to be right, double apologies bc idk when the next chapter will be out because it's gonna be a double release but i will keep everyone posted. also i super rushed the edit on this so like if there's a big glaring error feel free to message me about it.
comments and reblogs are appreciated !!
Four days of Leo. 
You were upset that Din was leaving you but you got over it rather quickly with the promise of his hasty return. 
The morning he’d left you’d gone back to bed, you couldn’t think of anything to do without him so you just slept, dismissing the girls when they came to dress you. Your makeshift bed is colder than ever as you toss and turn for a few minutes before finally rising. You managed to find a dress that wouldn’t require much assistance to put on, stepping into it before leaving only to find Leodall waiting outside your door. 
“Can I help you?” You give him a perplexed look as he clears his throat. 
“I’ve been tasked with protecting you while the Mandalorian is away.” 
What the hell is Leo supposed to do if you’re in danger?
“Is this Kodo’s doing?” You fight back the frown that threatens to form on your face.
“No ma’am. The Mandalorian instructed me to keep an eye on you.” 
Bastard. 
Of course he didn’t tell you Leo was going to be watching you while he was gone, he knew you’d be livid, which you are. You know better than to fight this, Leo’s terrified of Din, he’ll do whatever he asks of him. With a sigh you begin to make your way to the library, hearing his flustered steps behind you. 
You don’t want to be stuck with him in the library all day so you simply grab a handful of books before making a hasty return to your room. Much to your chagrin, he follows you in, keeping a watchful eye on you as you read. 
He does all sorts of nonsense.
He sweeps, and dusts, and fusses. Nothing is ever clean enough for him. You tell him it’s fine dozens of times but he just won’t stop insisting. He takes the sheets off the bed to be washed despite you telling him you don’t even sleep there. 
His orange complexion goes damn near white when he discovers that you’ve been sleeping on the closet floor. You explain to him with as much patience as you can muster that nothing he can do will stop you from sleeping in there and you find a compromise where he thoroughly washes every single blanket, sheet, and pillow while you try not to scowl at him. 
And he won’t stop talking. 
He doesn’t seem to take the hint. You can sigh and groan as much as you want to when you look up over your book at him but he just keeps going. 
The only time he goes silent is when you have to attend dinner with your husband. Leo accompanies you as Din would, standing behind you as you take your seat at the dining hall table.
Kodo looks… tired? 
You’ve seen plenty of emotions on that smug face of his, but exhaustion? Never. 
“Let’s make this quick.” He doesn’t even look at you as he takes a swig of whatever’s in his mug. You don’t grace him with a verbal response, just a nod and a hum as you take a sip from your own glass, hoping the water will soothe your nerves. 
They don’t even bring out any food as he writes something down, shuffling through the papers in front of him. 
“I don’t have a lot of time today…” He finally looks up at you, there are bags under his eyes and you can’t help but wonder what’s gotten to a man who seemingly cares about nothing. “Let’s get started, shall we?” He sits up a little straighter, giving you that smile you’ve grown to hate more than anything else in this castle. “My father is ill.” 
“I’m so sorry, my prince.” Your sympathies are emotionless, you don’t remember what his father is like. If he’s anything like the rest of his relatives you’re certain you wouldn’t care for him. 
“Don’t be, this is a good thing.” Of course his father’s sickness would be a positive to him. “They’ve already transferred many of his royal duties over to me.” Hence the exhaustion. “This is a very good thing, wife. You could be queen by the end of the month.” Your stomach lurches at the thought. 
Being queen means making heirs. 
“How wonderful.” You stare at him, really taking him in for the first time in a while. Maybe it’s just because you know exactly how ugly he can be but right now you have to wonder how anyone considers him attractive. You don’t even know what Din looks like but you know that purely based on his actions that he’s more attractive to you than this. 
“I don’t have much else for you, you are excused.” You blink at him a few times as he says it before shooting a confused look at Leo who looks as puzzled as you. 
“You don’t want to have dinner?” You try to not sound excited at the idea of leaving already as he nods. 
“I already ate.” He’s already ignoring you all over again, his eyes back on his work as he waves you off. 
So you go back to your room, smiling the entire time.  
You read, you eat when Leo brings you food, and you sleep. 
And that’s the routine. 
For nearly a week that’s what you do. 
You wake, you let Leo in when he knocks, you deal with it when he fusses, and you sleep. 
But really what you spend most of your time doing is missing Din. 
You miss the way he smells, and the way he balances you out. It feels like you’re missing an integral part of yourself, you’ve grown so accustomed to his constant presence and the sudden lack of it is jarring. He made the castle feel like home and without him it returned to its former glory, a prison. 
Just as promised he returns, you’d hoped it would have been sooner but you’re just happy he’s back. You’d assumed the moment you laid eyes on him that you’d jump his bones immediately, but all you could think about was just how happy you were to see him. 
You just want to be with him. 
So you do just that.
And you take care of him, because it makes you happy to care for him the way he does for you. You don’t ask him about the trip, you know he’ll tell you about it when he’s ready. 
In the morning you hold him tight, and you tell him what you were told at dinner. That the king is sick, and you both know what that means. 
Despite the looming darkness, the morning is relatively normal after that. 
Until you get to the library.
He’d been staring at you for some time and you were just about to ask if he was okay when he spoke. 
“Do you know what riduur means?” 
Spouse. 
You’d seen it in the book while he was away. You’d focused on learning words that would most likely be relevant to your life with him. 
“No, I don’t think I learned that.” You’re mostly just curious if he’ll actually tell you. 
“It means partner, or spouse.” He sounds nervous, it makes your heart skip a beat. 
“Oh. Okay…”
He nods and you can’t help but be disappointed at his lack of followup. You try not to stare, keeping an eye on him as you return to your own book, in your peripherals you can see that he doesn’t even try to pretend to read, he’s just staring at you again. You get ready to shut your eyes when he starts playing with his helmet controls but he doesn’t remove it, instead he takes your face in his hands.
“Can I ask you something?” There’s no modulation as you hear his raw, unfiltered voice. His thumbs rub small circles into your jaw. 
Is this happening? Now? Or is he joking around again? 
“Of course.” You’ve been ready since the first time you thought this was happening. 
“Do you remember when I described the fear of love to you?”
Definitely not a joke. 
“Yes.” You couldn’t possibly forget it, you still feel it everyday. 
“Do you ever feel that fear?” 
Every single second of every single day. 
“Yes.” 
“I don’t want you to.” He releases your face, taking your hands in his instead. “I don’t want to either.” 
If he’s about to break up with you again you’re gonna kill him. You might actually push him out the window, he’ll be fine, he has his pack. 
“I don’t want our lives to be that. I want to leave, soon.” You sit up in his lap, the nook is a mess of tangled limbs and fabric from the skirt of your gown at this point. “B- but I want us to do something before we leave.” He’s usually so put together when he talks to you like this. Slow, well calculated words, but he’s stuttering a bit now, his voice nearly cracking as you give his hands a reassuring squeeze. 
“Okay.”
“Okay.” He repeats, nodding to himself before the helmet tilts up with a whisper of your name, it’s the first time you’ve heard your real last name and not Harand, in a long time. “I love you.” 
“I love you too.” You really do.
“I have lived my entire life in hiding, behind masks and walls.” He takes your hand, bringing it to the lip of his helmet as he takes your fingertips, bringing them under it to hold them to his lips. “I can’t, and I won’t do that forever. I have said it before and I will say it again, I have no secrets from you.” Are you holding your breath? The tightness in your chest makes you feel like you are. “And you deserve a much more profound proclamation of devotion but I’m worried that if I try to do that I’ll lose my nerve. So instead I’ll just say it, and I’ll spend the rest of my days after this showing you just how devoted I am.” He reaches under his cowl, producing a small chain from around his neck, he fiddles with the clasp for a moment before holding it out towards you. Two silver rings hang from the chain. “Sarad’ika, let me spend the rest of my days with you.” He sets the rings in your hand. 
You’re briefly waiting for formal words but you realize those aren’t coming. This is more than a marriage. This is an oath to each other, a permanent bond of devotion. 
“Of course.” You whisper, closing your hand around the bands before swiftly removing his glove, pulling him to your lips to place a kiss to his palm. “Of course, Din.”
You stare into that thin black visor, the both of you just taking a moment to take each other in. And for a brief moment you get a glimpse of the life you could have together. 
A chance at something real. 
Freedom. 
A house. 
A family. 
“Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde.” He murmurs, barely above a whisper.
“What’s that mean?” 
“Mandalorian wedding vows. I can teach them to you if you’d like.”
“What does it mean?”
"We are one when together, we are one when parted, we will share all, we will raise warriors."
You want him to take the helmet off. 
You’ve never felt such a strong urge to be face to face with him, to really truly see him in this moment. To know him and to be known. 
“And I want you to look.” He voices your own thoughts as he brings your hands to his helmet and you lean forward on instinct, pressing your forehead to the cool steel. You stare at the beskar mask. You’ve spent so much time wondering what lies beneath it but now you know that you don’t care, you imagine him as you’ve felt him beneath your hands. You tumble forward, wrapping your arms around his neck.You lift his helmet just enough to kiss him, to feel that warm familiar heat against you. 
“I want to do it soon, I don’t want to wait any longer.” He murmurs once his helmet is properly situated once more. 
“Absolutely.”
“One week from today. Elaine and I will plan everything and we can leave that night.” A week? 
“So soon?”
“It’s for the best.” You settle against his chest so you’re staring out the window at the palace grounds. Just holding each other for a few minutes until you finally speak. 
“It’s silly, but I actually think I’m gonna miss this place.”
“Really?”
“Not this place specifically, I won’t miss this far too large castle, and I won’t miss the arranged marriage of it all, but I’ll miss all the other parts.” You twist around in his arms to face him. “I’ll miss Lysa and Elaine, and the cabin, and being here, in the nook.” His grip on you tightens in an attempt to bring you comfort. “I’m really going to miss the people.” You are suddenly aware of just how fond you’ve become of the people of Naboo. You truly love and care for your subjects and a part of you is going to miss them terribly. 
“I’m sorry.” He truly sounds apologetic. 
“Don’t be. None of it compares to you, Mr. Djarin.” You don’t want him to dwell on any sadness you may have because none of it compares to how badly you want to spend the rest of your life with him. 
“Whatever you say, Mrs. Djarin.” He mimics your tone.
“You can’t call me that yet.”
“But it suits you.”
You wear your ring like he does. On your necklace. He keeps his on the thin silver chain and you keep yours on the cord with the silver flower charm. 
You have one full week to prepare. 
Din assures you that he’ll take care of all the logistical parts of your escape, he says he’s got a plan and you leave it at that, trusting him to handle it. You make yourself a five day schedule. 
Day one, which is today, your engagement day, you will spend packing and gathering whatever you wish to take with you, you both agree to each take one bag and nothing else to make things as easy as possible. 
Day two, Elaine is going to fit you for a gown while Din finishes his preparations for your departure. 
For your third day you’ve convinced Din to take you into the city to say goodbye. You want to see the markets and you want to see the people, one last time. 
On day four, you will have to attend your final dinner with your current husband.
And on day five you will be married. Elaine supposedly knows a pastor who works in a chapel just at the edge of the castle grounds. She has told him that the Mandalorian wishes to wed a servant girl, when the sun sets you will meet him there, your face concealed and just like that, you’ll be wed. 
When he explains it to you it all seems so simple but actually making it through the week is much harder. 
You don’t pack any clothes, Din says you’ll just get new ones when the two of you find somewhere to settle. You plan on wearing a simple tunic and pants, you’ll change after the ceremony and you’ll have your honeymoon once you’re safe and off planet. 
You’ve been wearing the necklace Din got you for a while now you don’t have to worry about that. Otherwise you don’t honestly have many belongings. You grab a few books from the library you’ve been meaning to read, tucking them into the canvas bag he brought for you. You pack a blanket and a few pieces of jewelry you think might be valuable before buttoning it shut, handing it off to Din to be tucked away in the cabin. 
You can’t help but feel like you’re forgetting something but you push the thought away. 
That night, when you’re laying with Din in the closet you hold the rings up together, staring at the intricate detailing in a way you haven’t gotten a chance to do yet. You rest your chin on his chest in the dim lamp light as you watch the way the flickering bulb reflects off the silver. 
The outsides are rather pretty, matching patterns of swirls and vines, miscellaneous flowers adorn the band. The insides are different though, both carved with the same word you vaguely remember from your book. 
Riduurok
It represents a love bond. 
The difference is specifically that yours has a very small carving of a mudhorn, a sigil you recognize from his armor, while his is engraved with a flower. A piece of each of you. 
“They’re beskar.” He says softly. His helmet resting on your bare chest. 
“Like your armor? Isn’t this only supposed to be used on Mandalorians?” You drop his ring and focus back on your own. 
“They make exceptions.” He yawns, he still hasn’t fully recovered from the exhaustion of his trip and you wonder if he slept at all when he was gone. 
“Is this why you left? To get these?”
“Not just anyone can forge beskar, I needed to seek out an old friend to do it.” He adjusts himself a bit, fiddling with his helmet.
“They did a beautiful job.” You close your eyes as you say it, hearing his helmet hit the floor and his face taking its place against you as he lays back down. 
“She always does.” He reaches over, turning the lamp off.
“Why a mudhorn?” He laughs when you ask, rolling over so he’s on his side, still holding you. 
And before you fall asleep, he tells you a story. 
In the morning Din leaves you with a kiss on the forehead to go handle the final preparations of your departure while Elaine arrives with her seamstress kit and bundles of white fabric. 
You want your own dress for this. 
Not one of the ones tailored to you and paid for with Kodo’s money. 
She takes your measurements in silence, her face contorted in concentration as she notes everything. From the looks of it, she already has a good portion of the dress finished. 
It’s gorgeous. 
Pale, sheer fabric lined with dainty little dots. The skirt is layered, flowing freely when she pins it against your figure, fitting it to you perfectly. 
“Elaine… this is beautiful, when did you find the time to make this?” 
“I started it a while ago, I hoped you’d like it.” She smiles and it feels almost normal. Like two friends just looking out for each other. 
“I love it, thank you, I don’t know how I’m going to repay you for everything you’ve done.” 
“You’ve done enough just by being kind to me, princess.” He manages to speak clearly even when she’s holding pins between her teeth. 
“Please, you don’t have to call me that, call me by my name.”
And she does. 
When she finishes the dress you have to fight back tears, not just because of how wonderful of a job she’s done, but because of the sentiment of it all. 
“Will you come to the wedding? You and Lysa?” You take her hands in yours, as you stare at yourself in the mirror, white lace falling off your shoulders in beautiful layers. 
“If you’d like.”
“Nothing would make me happier. You give her hands a squeeze and she helps you out of the gown, after about an hour Din returns from his day spent finding you passage off of Naboo, laying down beside you in the closet, you’re in only your undergarments since you didn’t bother changing after Elaine was done.
“I missed you.” He mumbles as he crawls across the sheets towards you. 
“You always miss me.” He just laughs when you sit up on your elbows to smile at him.
“I got us a ship.” He murmurs, you barely get a chance to cover your eyes before his helmet is off, his mouth on yours as he climbs on top of you. 
“Where’s it taking us?” You gasp out when he finally pulls back, tugging at the latches on his armor as he sits up on his knees. 
“Wherever we want. It’s a cargo ship, making multiple stops throughout the outer rim, we’ll be able to get off whenever.” You listen, eyes still shut, counting as each piece of armor is set on the floor until the last one is off. 
“What about our great escape? What’s the story?” His knee slides between your legs as he crawls back on top of you, holding himself above you so you have to strain your neck to kiss him. 
“The princess ran off on her own volition. She was unhappy for a long time and finally couldn’t take it anymore.” He pulls back just enough that you can’t find him without your sight, whining as you slump back against the pillows. “Elaine will spread whatever rumors she needs to to make it true.” 
“What about her loyal Mandalorian bodyguard?” You reach up, opting to just pull him down to you instead of trying to find him yourself. 
“He was embarrassed, ran away with his tail between his legs because he accidentally lost the princess.” He lets you pull him against you, his face finding a place under your jaw, his stubble brushing against your neck as he does. 
“Didn’t realize he was such a coward.” You let out a breathless laugh as his chin brushes against a particularly ticklish part of your throat. 
“Apparently he was a real baby about that kind of thing.” You feel a soft bite emphasizing his words as his teeth graze your skin. 
“What a shame.”
“Truly.” He ends the back and forth when his mouth dips between your breasts, licking a strip of the skin there before sliding lower. “Do you have any other plans tonight?” 
You just cleared your whole schedule. 
“Nope.” 
“Perfect, I thought we could do some married couple practice?” He lifts your legs up, resting them on your shoulders as he presses several tender kisses to your thighs. 
“Married couple practice?” You’d do just about anything he wanted you to right now as long as he doesn’t stop what he’s doing. 
“Well we’re gonna be married in just a few days, we should probably practice.” There’s a brief shuffling as he tosses his gloves aside before hooking a finger on your panties, you’re waiting for him to tug them down but instead you just hear a few rips and feel his breath against your mound. 
“I don’t exactly get what that entails…” Your words are shaky as he runs his thumb along the crease between your thigh and your cunt. 
“Well I was thinking all day, you know, while I was busy missing you.” He finally puts his mouth on you and it’s barely enough. His fingers spread you open as he leans forward, placing a single chaste kiss onto your clit that makes you jump a bit. 
“Of course.” Your voice pitches up a bit.
“And I was thinking about how I’d probably come back here and we’d talk a little like we normally do, and then we’d probably have sex like we normally do.” He still doesn’t put his mouth on you, you just feel his breath against you, making your pussy ache and your clit throb. 
“So far so good.” Are you even speaking loud enough for him to hear you?
“But then I realized that we’re gonna be married soon, so I thought we should probably start acting like it.” He leans forward just enough for his nose to bump against your clit.
“Yeah?” Your hands tangle in his hair in an instant. 
“Yeah. You know, typical married people things, I ask you how your day was, you tell me it was fine, and then we have boring married people sex.” He tilts his head to the side a bit, just enough to relieve any of the pressure against your core as you try desperately to pull him into you. 
“What is boring married people sex?” You ask, strained and breathless. 
“You lay on your back and I do my thing until I finish inside you, because married people have kids, that’s what they do.” Finally, finally, his tongue drags along your seam before dipping into your weeping hole, your back arching as you groan. 
“Obviously.”
“You probably won't finish, I’m pretty sure that’s part of it.” He mumbles against you before pressing his tongue deeper into you. 
“Well that doesn’t seem fair.” Your eyes are squeezed shut as he works you open, slowly, your cunt leaking as he laps at whatever he can. 
“Marriage is all about compromise.” He pulls back, a little breathless himself now before wrapping his arms around your legs, nuzzling his face between your legs before wrapping his lips around your clit, leisurely sucking until you can’t hold back the obscene moan that forces its way out of you. 
“How is that a compromise?” You finally manage to grumble through your haze, the coil in your stomach tightens just as he comes up for air, resting his head on your thigh. 
“I don’t know, it just is- dank farrik- missed you- your taste.” His own voice is nearly as needy as your own as he leans back down into you, his tongue swirling around that little bundle of nerves until you feel like you're about to explode. 
“Being married… sounds awful.” Your chest heaves and your thighs tighten around his head as he sinks two fingers into you, briefly pulling back with a small gasp. 
“We’ll make it work.” He curls his fingers, chuckling when you tighten around him. 
“Maybe that’s the compromise.” You muse as he flattens his tongue against your clit.
“Making it- making it work?” You’re so fucking close, if you could just get him to stop talking and focus you’d be able to finish. 
“Yeah, maybe the compromise is making boring married sex work for both of us.” You stammer again, desperate for him to just send you over that edge. 
“I suppose we could try that.” He flicks his tongue against you one last time before withdrawing his fingers, you whimper the moment he does. “Are you going to come?” He knows exactly what he’s doing, and that you are. You nod with a breathy whine and he pulls back entirely, sitting up. 
“If you want me to marry you you better stop whatever it is you’re doing.” You spit the words out quickly, desperate to pull him back in. 
“If you want to come you better not make jokes like that.” He teases but you know he’s incapable of denying you anything. 
“Fine, fine, just- come here.” You hold your arms out towards him and he eagerly crawls back into them, slotting himself between your thighs as he spreads your legs wide to accommodate him. You arch your back and shift your hips to the best of your ability, trying to get some kind of relief against him but he pulls back just enough to prevent it.
“How was your day?” You can feel his grin as he leans down, kissing along your jaw slowly as you paw at his chest.
“It was great, wonderful.” You gasp out as you feel him drag the head of his cock through your folds, coating himself in the abundant wetness there. 
“Now ask me about my day.” He notches himself at your entrance, not pushing in just yet but enough to make you squirm in an attempt to take matters into your own hands unsuccessfully. 
“I’m gonna kill you.” Your voice is already ragged and strained at this point but when he still doesn’t move you sigh. “How was your day?” The moment you finish your sentence he pushes into you in one smooth motion, burying himself to the hilt with a groan from both of you. 
“It was fine.” He mumbles before almost immediately finding a rhythm, pumping himself inside you with deep deliberate thrusts. His forehead presses against yours as he lets out a breathy whine. 
This certainly doesn’t feel boring. 
He takes hold of your hips, raising them slightly so he can angle himself to slam against your g-spot, twisting your body until you let out a particularly strained moan and he knows he’s found it. Your brain is already mush just from the sheer speed at which he started fucking you, giving you no time to adjust, so all you manage to mumble is his name. 
“You- you want me to fill you up? He rasps out.
You nod for a moment until you remember the darkness that you’re both in and you manage to find your voice.
“Yes, please.” Your hand slips between your legs as you begin to rub slow circles into your clit but he takes your wrist and slowly pulls it away.
“I- I wanna see if- if you can come just like this.” He stammers out as he continues jackhammering into you, purposefully pushing himself into your g-spot as your walls flutter around him. 
“Din…” You whine but he just keeps at it. 
“I bet you can, I bet you’ll come when I do, when I fill you up, when I’m spilling out of you.” Your head is spinning from the repeated stimulation as he continues to focus on that sweet spot until you’re both falling apart. He’s exactly right. He comes first, snapping his hips forward until he’s nestled against your cervix. And when he’s done he slowly fucks his cum deeper into you, reveling in the lewd wet sounds and it only takes a moment more before you finish as well, gasping and strangling his cock as you clamp down on him. 
When your breathing settles he turns onto his side, holding you against his chest before mumbling a sleepy I love you, so much. The two of you have been laying in silence for quite some time when you finally speak up. 
“You know, married people sex is subjective.” 
“Hmm?” He hums softly.
“Any sex we have after we’re married is married people sex, because we’ll be married people.”
“Mhmm.” He sounds like he’s barely awake but you just keep going. 
“I don’t know why you assume it has to be boring.”
“Mmhm.” He continues to hum against your chest, a low rumble. 
“Do you spend all your time away from me coming up with over complicated ways to put a baby in me?” You finally blurt out with a laugh, rubbing his back as you do. 
“It worked, didn’t it?” He finally sits up a bit and speaks, his voice is heavy with exhaustion. 
“Maybe I spend all my time thinking about the same thing and you just make it really easy for me to get what I want.” You’re still laughing softly. 
“Does that mean you want to have more boring married people sex?” The fatigue in his voice dissolves quickly. 
“Only if you stop calling it that. We aren’t boring married people and we are never going to be. We’re just going to be married people.” 
“Mmm, I can make that work. Do you want to have more married people sex?” He starts to sit up on top of you again but you put a hand on his chest, pushing him so he’s laying down on his back. 
“Absolutely I do.” You straddle his hips before reaching out into the darkness to take his face in your hands. 
Today is the only day you’ve woken up sad since Din proposed. 
Today you have to say goodbye to your favorite part of Naboo, the people. When you wake he’s already dressed, attaching the last of his armor before helping you up. 
“I thought you might want to leave early, so we can spend as much time in the city as possible.” His voice is still thick with sleep as you get to your feet. 
You tell Leo to bring you as many coin purses as he can before you leave and he returns with five rather hefty bags of credits that Din slips into his bag before you head out. You go through the usual process, bracelet and all the other hubbub before you begin your walk through the streets. 
There’s a dull ache in your chest as you look around at the people. Your people. 
The thought of never seeing them again, and never getting a chance to really help them. If you were queen you could do something about all of this, but you can’t stay long enough to do such a thing.
So you settle for this. 
You hand out credits to anyone who will take them, saving a bag for Vivian's family. You embrace anyone who will let you, and you hold the hands of everyone you give credits to. And once four bags are empty you go to Vivian’s store and you play with Theo, and even though she protests for the better part of an hour you give her the fifth coin purse. And when the sun starts setting you hug her. 
And you fight the urge to say goodbye because it doesn’t matter how much you trust her, no one can know that this is your last time visiting the city. 
When you leave the store it’s clear how upset you’re becoming about all of this so Din takes you to the markets just as the sunsets and you get to see the changeover. You can’t technically go to the Lunar Markets without your cloak, it wouldn’t be a good look for a princess to be wandering through such a taboo place, but you stand just outside the first street and you watch all the lights flicker on. 
Each string light going on at its one speed, dazzling flashes of light all dancing through the air until the entire street is illuminated.
It’s beautiful. 
Yet you don’t feel better. 
You just feel sad. Because you’ll never get to see it again. 
So you walk, quietly with Din, back towards the castle. 
“You’re upset.” His voice fills the silence almost immediately as you walk the empty street back. 
“A bit.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t do anything. I’m royalty, I should have helped these people when I had the chance to.” You sigh, resting your shoulder against his.
“You did the best you could.” It sure doesn’t feel like it. 
“And it still wasn’t enough.” 
“You did more for them than any other member of the royal family has done in decades.” You have to fight the urge to take his hand in yours after that. 
“You always know what to say.” 
“Aren’t you that bitch from before?” A voice breaks through the small moment of peace and you and Din both turn quickly to see a vaguely familiar face. “Didn’t realize that you were royalty, doesn’t seem like much of a guard for a princess, one guy.” He nods at Din who immediately steps in front of you, silent. 
You squint, trying to recall where you know him from when two other men step out from a nearby alley, flanking him. That’s when it clicks. 
You recognize his welding goggles. And his greasy black hair. 
He had accosted you many moons ago, in the market, Din had knocked him flat on his ass for it. Din takes a few steps in their direction, deliberate and deadly. It doesn’t matter how capable you know he is, you still don’t like the sight of him going up against a group of three. 
“Look man, this doesn’t have to be a problem, we’ll even pay you for just a couple minutes with her.” The one you recognize quips and you feel sick at the insinuation. 
“I’ve never been with a princess.” His friend on the left sneers and you instinctively take a step back. That’s all it takes to send Din over the edge though, you don’t even see the first hit, he moves so quickly. You just see the guy on the left hit the street, a gush of blood shooting out from his nose. 
The other two hop into action immediately after, both standing with their arms held up defensively but it does them no good. 
The one on the right is stupid enough to strike first, his fist hits beskar and he stumbles back with a yelp. Your eyes go wide when Din kicks his legs out from under him, he follows the first man as he hits the ground, his head knocking against the stones, in an instant he’s out cold. 
You gasp at the suddenness of it all. 
The one with the goggles loses all his bravado in an instant, he turns and you’re sure he’s about to run but he doesn’t get the chance, Dins hand wraps around his throat and he’s on the ground beside his friends, except he isn’t as lucky as his friends because the Mandalorian doesn’t relent. He boxes him in with his legs as he kneels, his fist slams against the other man's face repeatedly and your ears fill with a sickening crunching sound. 
In all honesty you aren’t worried about anyone but Din right now, it isn’t just the man's face that’s making the breaking sounds, it’s his fist as well. 
You rush over to them and put your hands on Din’s shoulders, he stops immediately before turning to look at you, his shoulders relax immediately and he reaches for you but he winces when he wraps his hand around your arm. 
“Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.” He whispers softly and you nod.
“It’s okay, but we should go.” You rub his back a bit as he stands. 
“I just need a second.”
“Okay. You nod, watching as he leans down, whispering something in the barely conscious man's ear, you don’t catch a word of it but when he’s done he stands and you both begin walking back towards the castle. 
“I’m okay, I promise.” He groans as you usher him into the cabin. You’ve been fussing over him the entire walk back. 
“Being married means not lying about this kind of thing.” You snap back at him as you open the door. 
“I’m not lying, trust me, I’ve had much worse.” You know it’s true but that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to worry. 
You frown, having him sit at the kitchen table as you carefully pull his gloves off, both knuckles are jagged and bloody. 
“Kriff… do you have a first aid kit?” 
“I promise, sarad, it’s fine.” 
“Marriage means compromise.” You glare at him as he sighs and you cross your arms in front of your chest.
“Fine. In the fresher, there’s a loose board in the cupboard, pull it back and bring me the case that’s in there.” You cock an eyebrow at him before hurrying off to follow his instructions and sure enough you find it, a small metal case. You return to the main room, setting the box down on the table, watching as he fumbles with the lock. He flips the lid open before sliding the box over to you. Your jaw goes slack as you stare at several vials of bacta. 
“Why do you have so much of this stuff?” You cringe at the memory of having to apply the sour substance to your split lip.
“For emergencies, which by the way, this is not.” You grab one of the vials as he gestures at his hands, uncorking it and dipping your finger into the slimy liquid before taking his hand in yours, applying a thin layer to it, watching the blood slowly mix with the bacta in crimson swirls. 
“You’re hurt, this is an emergency.” He just sighs, letting you do your work, not even wincing one as you do so. When you’re done you recork the vial before putting it back in the case and returning it to its hiding place.  
“Thank you.” He whispers when you come back to him, kneeling in front of the chair and helping him out of his armor as he keeps his hands on the table. 
“What was that?” You grin up at him as he sighs again.
“Thank you.” He says a bit louder. 
“You’re welcome.” You take the last of his armor off before standing. “Now come on, let’s lay down.” You wrap an arm around his waist as you walk to the mattress, helping him down as you keep his hands away from the sheets before laying down beside him, resting your head on his chest. You lean over and flip the lamp off before settling in beside him. 
“Did you have a good day?” He whispers against you as you lay your head on his shoulder. 
“I had a sad day, but it was still good.” 
“I’m sorry you had to see that.” He mumbles in the darkness, his tone quickly turning to one of shame. .
“What? The fight? You were just doing what you always do, you were protecting me.” You let your fingertips roam across his chest in small circles in an attempt to soothe him. 
“I should’ve- I shouldn’t have snapped like that. You shouldn’t have seen me like that.” 
“Hey. I want to see you like that. I want to see all the parts of you, not just the pretty ones.” He doesn’t respond, and for a moment you have to wonder if you’ve upset him, but then you feel his chest rise and fall sharply a few times. Your hands fumble around until you find his face, the apples of his cheeks are a bit damp as you run your thumbs across them. 
You aren’t really sure what to say. So you just go with what you know will make him understand just how okay everything is right now. It hasn’t been an easy week so far for either of you. 
“I love you.” You whisper before leaning down to kiss him, your mouth thankfully finding his. “And I can’t wait to marry you.” You lay back down and feel his arms tighten around you, after a few minutes his breathing steadies out and you know he’s okay. 
“I love you too.” Is the last thing you hear before you both fall asleep. 
One last dinner with Kodo and then you never have to see him again.
That’s what you keep reminding Din as he tries to convince you it isn’t necessary, to which you remind him exactly what happened last time you didn’t attend dinner. Not that you aren’t just as worried as he is, of course you are, you’re just internalizing it better. Most people probably spend the day before their wedding stressing, it’s only natural.
So that’s exactly what you do today.
You stress.
You pace, and you stress until the sun is setting and Din is trying to persuade you one last time into not going which you ignore before the two of you walk the familiar trail to dinner. 
You never know what to expect when you walk into the dining hall, but today you couldn’t be more pleased to find Kodo positively swamped. With his fathers condition worsening a fair amount of his royal duties now fall under his son's jurisdiction. He doesn’t look at you or Din when you arrive and you’re thrilled when you see they didn’t set the table for dinner. The entire room is silent save for Kodo scribbling something on a piece of paper, when you go to sit he raises a hand and you stop dead in your tracks. 
“No need to sit, this will be quick.” He stands and you feel a sudden urge to stand behind Din, to put something between you and Kodo but you resist. “My fathers condition is worsening, that is the only news I have now I must be off.” He snaps and a servant helps him put on his coat as you watch in stunned silence, he shoots you one last glance before walking out the door. “That will be all.” And just like that he’s gone. When the door shuts behind him you can’t help but burst into a fit of laughter purely spurred on by your disbelief as Din walks you out of the room.
It was just that easy.
You’d spend hours stressing today and it was that kriffing easy. 
You’re grinning ear to ear when you turn to Din once you’re safe and out of the dining hall. 
“We never have to do that again.” Your voice and excited whisper. 
“Never.” He repeats, you can practically hear his own smile. 
“Can we go home now?”
“Home?” He looks behind him before wrapping an arm around your waist. 
“Sorry, the cabin.”
“I still haven’t fixed the bed frame you know.” He’s still walking you in that direction as he says it so you just laugh.
“That’s okay, I don’t mind.” 
“Then let’s go home.” 
And that’s exactly what you do. And when he opens the door to let you in you realize with a profound sadness that this is your last night in the cabin. A place that is the closest thing you have to a home here on Naboo, besides Din. But he’s a person, not a place. This is your home. His home. You can’t help but wonder if the sorrow is getting to him too, leaving is hard, no matter how much you hate certain aspects of this planet there will always be parts that you love.
But you don’t want to be sad the night before your wedding. 
So you do your best to clear your head.
“Aren’t we supposed to spend the night before our wedding apart?” You tease as you kick your shoes off, eager to just go to sleep, turns out spending all day being worried is exhausting. 
“Why would I want to do that?” He’s taking his own armor off, turning to glare at you. 
“I don’t know, tradition?” He helps you out of your dress and you quickly climb into bed.
“That’s not my tradition.” He lays beside you and you on the mattress, groaning as he kneels to crawl in beside you. 
“Lights off?” You whisper as your fingers trace the edge of his helmet. 
“On?” His voice is soft and hopeful and you smile before promptly closing your eyes, the action is swiftly followed by the sound of his airlock. He kisses each of your eyelids before your lips, pulling you into him completely. 
And he loves you like it’s the last time he ever will. 
He makes every time feel like the first time with how gentle he is with you, even when he’s being rough. There’s always the tiniest spark of tenderness to him. 
But tonight is different.
Tonight he loves you like he’s loved you his entire life. 
It isn’t another first time, this time feels like the thousandth, like he knows your own body better than you do. Like he still loves it even after all this time. His hands can’t hold enough of you, his mouth can’t savor enough of you, and his cock can’t fill enough of you. He chases more and more, wanting only to make you happy, to unravel you and wind you up just so he can do it all over again. 
However you want it. 
That’s what he says when you climb on top of him, sinking down on his length with a groan. So you do it exactly how you want it, which is every way. He takes whatever you give him and you give him whatever he wants. And when he gasps in your ear the single word, posed as a question, inside? You nod, pulling his face closer to kiss his cheek.
“You don’t have to ask, you can just do it.” You murmur, and he does. 
A part of you knows just how reckless that is but it matters less now that you’re leaving. Any children who would be born from this union no longer have to live in fear of your current technical husband, because they won’t be anywhere near him by the time they’re born. 
So you let yourself stop being afraid of that possibility. 
And you let Din love you.
Today’s the day. 
Your day. 
It feels perfect already, the sun shines in through the small windows, you’re still tangled in each other when your eyes flutter open. Based on the way his breathing sounds you know his helmet is still off so you shut your eyes, letting your head rest on his chest as you relax against him for a few more minutes. 
It’s going to be a hard habit to break after today. 
Not looking. 
Shit. 
By the end of today you’ll have seen him. You’re meeting him at the chapel before the sunsets, and you’ll be off planet before morning. And in between that you’ll look. You’ll know every part of him. 
You feel him stir, his breathing picking up just a little as he lets his hand wander up and down your spine. 
“Good morning, sarad.” He murmurs, leaning down to kiss the top of your head. 
“Morning.” You kiss his collar bone, squeezing whatever parts of him you can get your hands on. “What time do we have to start getting ready?”
“Lysa will help you get ready and Elaine and I will set up the church. We have to explain our circumstances to the pastor.” 
“Like tell him that your bride is married?” You groan, just wanting to stay in bed with him.
“Like tell him I’m marrying some random servant girl, but more importantly tell him no one will see your face during the ceremony because of the creed.”
“Is that a real thing?” You sit up a bit, remembering to keep your eyes shut just in time.
“Not at all, but he doesn’t know that.”   
You pull each other close, your movements synced as you do. 
“Are you ready?” His tone is light but you know that if you said no right now he wouldn’t be bothered, he’d wait. It’s a good thing you’re more than ready. 
“I have been for quite some time.” 
The two of you stay like that for quite some time, for as long as you can actually, until Elaine is banging on the cabin door. When that happens you both sit up quickly, Din helps you dress and in just a few moments you’re both ready. 
The next time you see him will be at your wedding. 
You both stand by the door, unopened, when he takes your hand. 
“I love you.” He brings your hand to his chest as he says it.
“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum.” You do your best with the pronunciation, trying to mirror how he says it. 
“I will know you forever.” He whispers out and you tilt your head to the side. “That’s what that means. It’s our version of I love you, but it means I will know you forever.” 
You squeeze his hand on last time before dropping it and lifting his helmet just enough to kiss him once. 
“I will. I have big plans to know you forever.” You smile at him one last time before opening the door, Elaine and Lysa waiting outside. 
After Lysa walked you back to the castle things were a bit of a whirlwind. 
It was a long arduous process, she insisted on making you perfect one last time. Her sentiment made your heart clench so you allowed her this, considering it a parting gift, one last day staring into the vanity. 
She spends the day getting you ready in every way possible and you spend the day missing Din. 
Until she gets to your hair and you finally speak up.
“Can we leave it down?” You clear your throat and turn to her as she nods. 
“Of course.” 
Despite how much time Lysa has spent dolling you up you’re happy to look in the mirror and see you. Clear as day. Not some unrecognizable woman being dressed to the sake of her husband, you just look like you. 
When the sun is finally beginning to set outside your window she helps you into your dress.
Elaine really outdid herself. 
It’s simpler than some of your other gowns but it’s exactly what you wanted. The dress isn’t wearing you, you’re wearing the dress. You’re standing in the full length mirror when Lysa produces your veil, helping you clip it into your hair so your face will be completely concealed. 
“It’s time to go.” She whispers as she adjusts your dress once, smiling gently at you.
“Could I have a minute alone?” You whisper back before she nods and rushes out, shutting the door silently behind her. 
You lift the veil and look around the dimly lit room for what will be the last time. Your hand subconsciously wanders up your necklace, you twist the ring hanging there between your fingers as you open the closet door, flipping on the lamp to stare at the bed you’ve made. 
You sort of wish you could bring it with you. Your little blanket bed. But you know better than that. As much as you’re going to miss it, after today you’ll have a real bed. A shared bed, with your riduur. 
So you say a silent goodbye to this bed. Your first shared bed. And you leave to find Lysa. 
You know the plan by heart. 
Lysa will walk you in. It’ll be a quick ceremony and then you will get your things from the cabin and leave. 
Simple.
Easy. 
The church is nestled in the woods, only a few servants ever attend but it’s a quaint little place, covered in vines as you stand outside the large wooden entryway. This is it. You will walk out of this church married to a man you actually love. Just as the sun hits the horizon you know that’s your cue to enter. You take Lysa’s arm, holding her close as she pushes the door open. You’re holding your breath as you look around the church, waiting to lay your eyes on him.
Empty. 
You tense up, your grip on Lysa tightens immediately as you both step inside. 
Completely barren. Not even a pastor. 
“They must be running a little bit late.” You can tell by the tone of her voice that she is just as uneasy as you are right now.
Din wouldn’t be late. 
Not to this. 
“Let’s wait a few minutes, they’ll be here soon.” She insists before walking you into the church, you both sit in one of the pews. 
You wait.
And you hold her hand and you wait.
You wait until the sun is completely set and you’re both bathed in darkness before you can’t take it anymore and you stand abruptly, pulling the veil from your hair and handing it to her. 
“Go back inside, hide this, I’ll take care of this.” You walk with her back to the entryway with small frantic steps. 
“Ma’am, are you sure-”   
“I’ll find them.” You give her a reassuring smile, one that brings you no comfort before watching her rush back in the direction of the castle. The moment you know she’s far enough away to not hear it you finally let out the sob that’s been building in your throat. You don’t have time to break down right now though, you need to find Din. 
He didn’t abandon you.
Your mind wants to go there, a part of you whispers that he’s left you all over again but you know with absolute certainty that that isn’t possible. 
Something happened. 
So you search. 
Your heart threatens to burst from your chest as you begin your hunt. 
You go to the cabin only to find it just as you left it this morning. You wade through the waters, silently letting your eyes scour the darkness before you run through the gardens. Yet you come up empty once again. Not so much as a trace of either one of them. 
So you go to the only other place you can think to look. 
The place you had told yourself just a few hours ago that you’d never go back to, and you return to the castle. It’s desolate when you search the halls. Not so much as a guard in the dark stone corridors. It makes your stomach twist in knots. The rooms are empty, and the lights are off. 
What the hell happened?
Your lungs burn from the constant running but you can’t stop now, you won’t stop until you find him, and if you search every corner of the castle and he isn’t there then you’ll start searching the rest of the planet.
Whatever it takes. 
It probably won’t come to that though, you quickly realize when you finally find a room with the door cracked and the lights on. Any sense of relief it brings you is gone in an instant though as you realize what room it is. 
The dining hall. 
Your feet carry you towards it before your brain can comprehend what’s happening and you slowly push the doors open, stepping inside. You have felt a range of temperatures since your arrival on Naboo but right now all you feel is a blistering cold that smothers your flesh and bones. 
The table is set, and as is the case on all nights where you’re expected at dinner, Kodo sits in his usual place. 
Except this isn’t a night where you’re expected.
And he isn’t the only one sat at the table. 
Elaine sits on one side of him, looking like she’s about to be sick, Leo on the opposite side, downright refusing to look at you. You feel like you’re going to pass out the moment you see them and you can’t help but note the fact that Kodo’s guards aren’t here. 
“Don’t you look lovely.” The nasally bellow of his voice fills the entire hall as you take a step forward. It takes all of your focus to keep yourself from trembling as you stare at him.
“Did I forget we were supposed to have dinner?” You keep your voice surprisingly steady considering the circumstances. 
“You didn’t get my invitation?” His voice drips with malice as the doors behind you promptly shut, his tone is enough of an indicator that there was no invitation. 
This isn’t some coincidence, you didn’t just happen to stumble upon Elaine and Leo dining with your husband, no. 
It’s an ambush. 
“I must have missed it.” You murmur. 
“Take a seat.” He says it like it’s an offer but you know better than to refuse, not now. You sit at your usual spot, every muscle in your body is tense as you look across the table at him. “Tonight was supposed to be a celebration.” His face contorts into a sneer as he stares right back at you. “But I’m afraid our night has been ruined by some rather upsetting news.” 
Maybe you should just run. 
His guards aren’t here, you could probably outrun Kodo, especially with how much adrenaline is coursing through your veins right now. 
Not without Din.
“Are you okay?” He doesn’t sound concerned, the question burns a hole into you, what could he possibly mean by that? 
“I’m fine.” You swallow the lump in your throat, turning to look at Leo, and then Elaine, Kodo following your eyeline the entire time. 
“Don’t worry, she can’t hurt you, not anymore.” 
“I’m sorry?” The more confused you get the more the feeling of suffocation in your chest grows.   
“Your servant, she can’t hurt you anymore, I was actually about to dismiss her right before you arrived.” Your brows furrow as you try desperately to make sense of any of this and he grins. Teeth fully on display as he smiles at you from across the table. “You don’t know?” 
“I’m sorry, my prince, but I’m not sure about anything that’s happening right now.” Might as well say it, maybe it’ll get you some answers. 
“No need to apologize, not after what you’ve been through.” 
You know better than to ask a follow up question to that. 
Something is terribly wrong and it would be best to learn as much as you can before giving away any of your own knowledge. 
“Leodall told us everything.” If it’s possible for Leo to somehow look at you less, he manages to do so when Kodo says that. “You don’t have to worry about any of it now, I’m going to take care of everything.” Nothing about the faux soothing tone he takes on relaxes you, you’re getting more and more upset with each passing second. 
“What did Leo tell you?” The bewilderment in your voice isn’t an act as you fight to keep your voice from cracking. 
“About the Mandalorian, dear wife.” 
It’s a good thing you weren’t holding a drink, if you did it would be on the floor. You don’t have anything to say, any words you might have to say die in your throat. 
“We retrieved him from his quarters and he confessed to everything.” Kodo’s eyes raise briefly as he gauges your reaction. 
Din confessed. 
“Everything?” When you find your voice that’s the only word you can manage to produce as your stomach churns at the thought. What did they do to him to make him admit what the two of you have done? 
“It’s better this way, there’s no need for a trial.” He takes a sip of whatever dark ale fills his glass. Maybe your last act of defiance should be to aim the vomit rising in your throat at him, or at the very least at Leo. “Thank the gods Leo found that book, who knows how long this would have continued if it weren’t for him.” 
The Smitten Paladin. 
You knew you were forgetting something. 
Maybe there isn’t enough time to run but you could definitely jump across the table and strangle Leo, it probably wouldn’t even be that difficult. 
Or maybe you should just beg. 
Kodo is a man of ego, if you appeal to him maybe he’ll spare Din. That’s unlikely though, the best you can hope for now is a swift death for both of you. Should you just beg for that instead? 
“I confessed as well, to all of it.” Elaine turns to stare at you, she looks pained and Kodo’s smile drops the moment she speaks up. 
“There’s no need for that.” He hisses, his chair squeaks as he stands but she isn’t deterred. 
“The Mandalorian and I both confessed to our crimes, I’m sorry.” Elaine is strong. The entire time you’ve known her that’s been the word you’d use to describe her, but right now she just looks small. 
“That’s enough.” His voice rings through the hall as he snarls at her. “You’ve done enough.” But she doesn’t stop, tears form in the corners of her eyes as she reaches a hand towards you. 
“Mando told them what he did.” Her words become more and more rushed as Kodo begins to walk towards where she’s seated. “We told them all of it, what he made you do, how I helped him keep you quiet, how he took advantage of you.” Her voice is strained and broken as the loud crack echoes throughout the room when Kodo’s hand comes in contact with her face.
“Not another word.” He growls, his eyes icy and cruel, his hand still raised in silent warning. 
How he took advantage of you. 
Oh Din. 
He didn’t. 
You just stare at her. The weight of the world is starting to crash down on you bit by bit as your heart begins to beat frantically. 
Kodo sighs loudly before returning to his seat, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“You’ve ruined the big reveal.” He mumbles before looking back up at you. “Might as well get to your present since she’s ruined the surprise.” 
This can’t get worse. 
That’s what you’ve been consistently repeating to yourself as this dinner has carried on yet somehow it does. 
Everything gets worse when Kodo calls out for his guards. 
Six battle droids enter from the door behind Kodo, but you barely have eyes for them, you don’t have the brain capacity to notice them because you only see him right now. 
Your Din. 
Din who would do anything for you. With his hands cuffed in front of him, his ankles attached with a short chain. Din who is pushed to his knees, a man who should never be in such a position before anyone who isn’t you. Din who only looks at you, even now. 
Din who made up a lie, to protect you one last time. 
Your Din.  
There isn’t a facade you can put on now, nothing can hide the anguish on your face as you stare at him, you aren’t exactly proud when it consumes you entirely. 
And you vomit. 
The tension in your chest finally bubbles over and you expel the contents of your stomach onto the table. Nobody moves, only you, hands gripping your chair as your chest heaves. You’re vaguely aware of Kodo standing beside you now, he’s speaking but you don’t hear a word, you only hear a ringing in your ears until you look at Din, who nods at you, just once, and everything comes back into focus. 
“He can’t hurt you.” Kodo’s voice is sickly sweet in your ear as he hands you a handkerchief from the table set up, giving you a moment to wipe your mouth as you fight back the urge to be sick all over again. “His restraints are state of the art, it doesn’t matter how much of a fight he puts up, he isn’t getting out of them.” 
Your brain is trying desperately to come up with some genius plan to get all of you out of this but you're coming up empty. 
There is nothing. 
“I’m thinking guillotine.” Kodo’s voice is a whisper now as he bends down to speak to you. 
“You do public executions on Naboo?” Your voice matches his in volume, but your eyes never leave Din, he’s struggling against them, but six battle droids? It wouldn’t matter if it was six Mandalorians. 
“I’m the king now, I can do whatever I want.” 
“Tonight was supposed to be a celebration.” 
Oh. 
“Defiling the queen is considered an act of treason in my eyes, so yes, it will be a public execution for these two.” He points at Din and then Elaine and at this point you have a headache as you try desperately to make the pieces of this demented puzzle fit together. You take a shuddering deep breath. 
Leo found the book.
He told Kodo.
Kodo had Din drawn and quartered. He would have been with Elaine, she was taken as well.
He told them he took advantage of you. 
That he defiled you. 
So you would be guiltless. 
And Elaine corroborated his story. 
Said she helped him. 
They had saved you.
And now they’re going to pay for it. 
“Why don’t we see the traitor’s face, guard?” Kodo’s voice tears you from your mental gymnastics as he snaps, pointing at Din and you can’t help it as you shoot up to be standing. 
“No!” The word is punched out of your chest, all the air leaving your body with it. 
“No?” Din stops struggling as everyone turns to face you now, Kodo’s question rings throughout the room as you try to come up with something, anything, to stop this. 
“You wanted to surprise me? Then we should wait, we should save the reveal.” Your words are rushed, you will do anything to keep that helmet on his head right now. 
“The reveal?” Kodo hisses.
“No one’s ever seen his face, we shouldn’t waste this opportunity on some random dinner.” Is this even worth it? At this point you’re probably just getting yourself killed. 
Now no one speaks. You finally manage to tear your eyes from Din to turn and face Kodo. 
“We should save it.” You whisper, you don’t even care if this gets you killed, you just want to keep his helmet on his head until you can figure out how to keep his head on his shoulders. 
Kodo’s sneer turns into a smirk.
“What a good idea.” You let out the breath you’d been holding in. “Maybe you aren’t completely bland, wife.” He puts a hand on the small of your back and you manage to keep yourself from recoiling. “Well then, I think we’re done here.” He whistles, once, clear and sharp and a pair of guards take Elaine by the arms, dragging her away but not before you manage to shoot her one last look of gratitude for what she’s done for you.  
  You finally look back at Din. 
Thrashing against the hold that the droids have on him until they yank him up into a standing position. 
What you wouldn’t give to be able to say anything to him, even just a single word.
“You don’t have to worry about him anymore sweet wife, it’s over.”  Kodo’s words are hot and vile against your ear as he puts a hand on your shoulder, hovering over you as you watch Din being dragged out of the room. 
He puts up one hell of a fight, one final reminder of just how strong your Mandalorian is, it takes all six of Kodo’s droids to keep him down. 
You don’t like the sight of it. 
There’s something fundamentally wrong about Din being overpowered.
You manage to swallow down the sob that threatens to rip through you as you get one final look at him as the doors slam shut, you fight the urge to recoil when Kodo leans down to plant a kiss on the top of your head.
“Your little nightmare is over.” He mumbles, his voice filled with an underlying joy. 
It’s just started. 
i no longer have a tag list so follow @lincolndjarinnotifs for updates!!
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acesentialsketches · 7 months
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Hello! This account is pretty new, but I’ve been a fan of your art for years.
I’ve been a lurker for a long while, but I want to be more active in TF and furry spaces. I’m just… very clueless about how to go about that. Do you have any advice for a nervous wannabe learning how to be part of an online community?
Hey hey! Sorry it took me a while to answer this, I was actually ruminating on the best way to do so.
Very glad to hear that you've been following for such a long time ^^ That means you likely got to see how I went from being a newcomer to the TF community to being a regular artist (god, can't believe I started a decade ago...)
As for getting yourself involved, it really can be just as simple as finding folks with alike interests and joining in on the conversation. Transformation is a pretty broad community with a bunch of different niches in it (like for instance how my work generally focuses on human to creature/character TF/TG), so it's worth narrowing down exactly what it is in TF you're interested in (or maybe you like the whole spectrum!) Nowadays that's usually via Discord groups, but much of the TF and furry community still does a lot of its interaction via places like furaffinity. If you trawl around, you're sure to find links to discord groups dedicated to talking about folks turning into things. Leaving comments on artists or writers whose works you enjoy means a LOT to those of us who create, and also opens you up as a person who is willing and interested to talk about said stuff. Heck, several friends who I talk to regularly nowadays started off as folks who just commented on my stuff whenever I uploaded!
And of course there's creating transformation related work, artwork and literature being the big things. Put some stuff out there, work on honing your craft, and slowly build up an audience. My situation is a bit atypical, considering that I built my reputation off of doing MLP TF art, to the point that even though the number of MLP TFs I've done has fallen off dramatically folks still refer to me as the pony TF person (which I don't mind at all!)- but creating TF work is probably one of the biggest ways of showing your interest in it.
It will take a bit of time and work, and it will require you to be open and vulnerable about yourself and something you care about, but if you keep at it and are earnest about your love for this thing we share about people turning into things, then I'm sure you'll find yourself amongst friends and the community in due time ^^
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w0lp3rtinger · 1 year
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Making Mischief Ch 4
aaahahaha I've been so fucking depressed BUT WE'RE GETTING THERE!
This has largely BEEN done save for me actually doing edits. Once again, I thank @Shadowsfascination and @shadamyheadcanons, who are a huge help and very tallented<3
Ch 3 Can Be Found Here!
(You can also read it on DeviantArt if you would like by following this link. I may… actually go back to uploading on A03 however. Remains to be seen.)
---
The sun had sunk below the water now; the only lights to be seen were the stars and the bonfires. Amy sighed as she peeled another apple from her bag, her small, silver knife glinting in the firelight. Glancing up, she watched as Cream, Charmy, and Tails played tag out on the sands. 
“They look like they’re having fun.” 
Amy gasped, hands instinctively clenching around her work. She turned to see Big just a little ways away, his feet outstretched towards the fire while his eyes were on the throngs of people. Amy chuckled. “Yeah, they are.” 
“Normally you are, too,” he scratched his chin, “but this year, not so much.” 
She shook her head, “No.” 
“Why?” 
Amy opened her mouth, then closed it. Her tongue poked out from between her lips as she looked back down at the apple in her hands. This was rough work, keeping the peel all in one piece. She adjusted the apple in her hands to reduce the tension on it. 
“Well, I’m just- I’m focused on something.” 
“You’ve been focused on it for a long time.” 
“Yeah.” 
“How many apples have you peeled?” 
Her nose twitched. “I don’t know.” 
“Do you think maybe you should work on it later? It’s getting late. They’re gonna-” 
“I know what time it is, Big. I’m fine.” 
She could hear him sigh, groaning as he stood up. Big dusted the sand from his legs with one hand as he picked up his rod with the other. 
“Your choice, I guess.” 
“Exactly.” Amy put her nose in the air, shoulders back. “And I suppose you’re gonna go off fishing. So we’re both doing what we feel like.” 
Big pointed toward the pier, “Well, I like fishing way out there so I can see the lanterns better. It’s darker. Plus, the walleyes will be biting.”
Amy looked towards where he was gesturing. On the shoreline, she could see people setting up their paper lanterns, decorating them. It wouldn’t be long now before the low-tide would start, and they would be released into the withdrawing waves. The long trail of burning lights would guide the spirits of loved ones home. 
Amy hummed quietly, settling gently into the lovingly somber image. She hadn’t made her lantern yet, but she wouldn’t need that much longer. 
“That does sound nice, Big.” Amy said, nodding. “You know, I may come out and join you.” 
Big nodded as he walked away, his fishing rod bobbing on his shoulder. Amy smiled for a moment, enjoying the sounds of music and the crackle of fire, the taste of salt water, the gentle breeze, but it was only for a moment. Once again, she hunched over the apple peel. She was so close to being done, and she had to finish this time.
“Surprised you’re not joining them.” 
Amy gasped, dropping the apple. Her knife clattered to the side as the apple fell on top of its own peel, splitting the long strand in two. 
She gritted her teeth, clenching her fists in her lap. “Hello, Rouge.” 
Rouge sat down next to her, adjusting her own witch’s hat as she did so. Blaze sat down on the other side of her, nodding as she did so.
“Oh,” Amy smoothed her skirts, focusing hard on trying to look relaxed. “And Blaze! I should have guessed you would be coming with Silver.”  
“Did we catch you in the middle of something?” Blaze cocked her head, brow furrowed.  
“Just a little, yeah.” 
Rouge grinned. “Oh, shame.” 
Amy grumbled as she scooped the knife off the ground as she tried to fish another apple out of the bag next to her. “Do you want something or-?” 
“Not really,” Rouge sighed. “Shadow ditched me to go help Silver with something, and Omega went with. Blaze and I have just been playing the carnival games, but then we got bored and cold.” 
“You got bored because you cheated all of the carnival games out of their best prizes,” Blaze said shaking her head, “and all I said was I wanted to take a moment to sit with Amy by the fire.” 
Rouge clicked her tongue as she gently waved a hand. “Semantics.” 
Amy hissed quietly through her teeth. Every apple in her bag had already been peeled, each a failure. Each and every single one, their broken skins already burning in the fire before her. With a growl, she threw in the last of them, leaning back as she bit into the failure of her labors. 
Rouge chuckled, leaning on her knee as she settled her chin into her hand. “Rough day?” 
“Maybe,” Amy muttered around a mouthful. 
“Aw, why?” 
“I don’t want to talk about it.” 
Rouge hummed, shaking her head. “You know that apple peel trick is an old wives tale, right?” 
Amy’s head snapped towards her. Rouge laughed. 
“What, you thought I wouldn’t notice?” 
“Notice what?” said Blaze.
Amy sighed, her head drooping. Rouge’s laugh turned into a cackle.
“Oo, it’s a funny little thing. The story goes that if you can peel a whole apple skin in one piece, and then throw it over your shoulder, you can see the first letter of the name of the person you are destined to be with.” 
Blaze’s brow furrowed, ear twitching as she looked between Amy and Rouge. “I don’t understand. Why?” 
“Why what?” Rouge’s grin was wide and glinting. 
“Why is that a belief?” 
Rouge waved a hand, “Well, people like romance, and mystery, and thinking they can tell the future, so people invent fun little things so that they might feel a bit, oh I don’t know… magic.”
“Shut up, Rouge!” Amy whipped her apple at her friend, “Magic is real, and you better learn that fast!”   
Rouge ducked, dogging the projectile. “Aw, come on Amy. I’m just teasing.” 
Blaze shook her head. “I still don’t quite understand. So you were hoping for-.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut uuuuup!” Amy whined as she covered her ears, “Don’t say it, or he might hear!” 
“Who?”
Amy froze, whipping around to look up at Shadow. He had on the same cloak as Sonic and Silver, but the white costume makeup Rouge always put around his eyes was still there. 
“Who do you think?” said Rouge. 
Shadow rolled his eyes, and Amy felt her face burn with embarrassment. She shot a glare at Rouge, who only smirked.  
Blaze gestured to the open space around the fire. “Are you here to join us?” 
He shook his head. “I just wanted to make Rouge aware of the fact that Omega has gone home.” 
“What?” Rouge pouted, “Already?” 
“His battery was getting low, and he was tired of carrying around all of your junk.” 
Blaze chuckled, and Rouge shot her a dirty look. 
“Well boo to him, I guess.” Rouge crossed her arms, slouching as she did so. 
“I saw you helping Silver with the lanterns, by the way,” Blaze said. “Thank you for that.” 
“It was no problem. He’s not quite done yet, but he said he could do the rest on his own.” 
“What are you up to then, if you’re not joining us and you’re not helping him?” Rouge gestured loosely. “You gonna be a party pooper too and head on home with Omega?”  
Shadow shrugged. With a huff, he pulled an apple from his quills, brushing a smudge off of it with his thumb. 
Amy’s breath caught in her throat. 
She was on her feet in an instant, hands wrapping around his and the apple he held. “Can I have that?” The words tumbled in a rush, “Please? Would you mind?” 
Shadow stared, wide-eyed and frozen. Amy tugged on the apple with a huff. “You can have one from my bag. I don’t care, they’re already peeled. But I- I need this one. Please?” 
He let go, pulling back as if he had been burned. Amy stumbled for a moment before grinning triumphantly. Throwing her arms wide, she hugged him tightly. 
“Thank you!” she said, grinning ear to ear. 
Shadow stayed silent as she sat back down, grabbing one of the apples from her bag and tossing it to him before she picked up her silver knife again. Amy didn’t have to look up to know Rouge was making a face. “Since when do you just give in like that?”
Shadow muttered something Amy couldn’t quite make out, but she heard the crunch of an apple being eaten as Blaze chuckled. 
“Wish you’d just do whatever I told you, but nooo, you always argue with me.” 
“Not true.” Shadow snapped. 
Amy swallowed, focusing on her work. She had gotten the top of the apple, right around its stem, peeled away. 
“Very true! I ask for your help and you always give me a hard time!” 
“Yeah, with stealing the Master Emerald, or secured documents, or some other thing you should not have.” “I can see why you might say no to that,” Blaze said. 
Rouge huffed, “Oh, who’s side are you on?” 
“His, I guess.” 
Amy’s tongue was sticking out of her mouth now. She had carved past the rounded portion of the apple and was now working through the easy part, but she couldn’t let her guard down. Even so, she heard Shadow snicker as Rouge whined. 
“No fair! I got you that cute little chao plush, and this is how you thank me?” 
“What you did was you stole a chao plush from a carnie, then shoved it at me when he realized it was missing and ran. He was very angry, you know.” 
“Yeah, well maybe he shouldn’t rig his games.” 
“You’re lucky he was mollified once I gave it back to him.” 
“If you didn’t want it, you should have just given it back to me.” 
“Let me repeat myself: you shoved it at me and then ran.” 
Amy had reached the bottom of the apple now, just before its nubbly little feet. So close. She was so close. 
“What are you even doing?” Shadow said around a bite of his apple. 
Amy opened her mouth to answer, but Rouge was faster. 
“She’s trying to see if Sonic will marry her.” 
Amy took a measured breath in through her nose, then out through her mouth, careful not to crush the apple in her hands. She pulled the knife away from the fragile skin as her hands shook. 
“Rouge,” Blaze muttered, “don’t be mean. Just let her finish.” 
Shadow, thankfully, said nothing. After a pause, all she heard was him take another bite. Amy let her eyes close, sighing.
Without the audience she wanted, Rouge huffed. “I’m not being mean, I’m just answering his question.” 
“You’re being a little mean.” 
“She just said she didn’t want Sonic to hear, she doesn’t care about Shadow.” 
“Shut up!” 
The edge in Shadow’s voice startled Amy into looking up. He was glaring at Rouge, and Rouge, for her part, seemed startled. One hand was on her chest, her head and gaze held at an angle that threatened retort. Blaze herself stared on with wide eyes and pursed lips, looking between everyone and very clearly unsure of what to do. When Shadow turned to face Amy though, his voice was low and gentle. 
“Don’t worry about her. You do… whatever it is you’re doing.” 
Amy smiled, “Thanks, Shadow.”
He looked away then, taking another bite as he did so. Amy worked the knife around the little nubbed feet of her apple, breathing in slowly as she did so until, at last, the very last bit of the peel came away under her knife and fell to her feet. 
She let out a sigh, head lolling back, shoulders relaxing. “Oh my god, that took forever.” 
“How many apples did you even go through?” Blaze said, leaning forward to look.
Amy groaned, shaking her head. “Twenty-five.” 
“Twenty-five?!” Rouge practically squawked, eyes wide. “Girl, what?” 
Amy laughed, almost breathless as she scooped up the peel gently. “Well, I knew I wasn’t gonna get it the first time.”  
“What do you do now?” 
Amy turned to Blaze as she lifted the peel by the end, letting the rest of it dangle. “Well… I throw it over my shoulder, and…” She closed her eyes, tossing it as she did so. “...When I turn around…”
She took a deep breath, then whirled about in her seat, eyes wide. Amy screamed, jumping to her feet as she threw her hands into the air. Oh, she knew she scared the people around her, but it didn’t matter. Amy twirled, laughing. “And there it is! There’s the S!” 
“S for what?” Shadow said as he leaned away from her, wincing at the volume. 
Blaze sighed. “For Sonic.” 
“What?” 
“The apple peel is supposed to show you the first letter of your true love.” Rouge shook her head. “I just got done explaining this to Blaze.” 
Amy sat down, red-face and jubilant. She dropped her knife into her bag as she scooped the apple peel off of the ground, keeping it in her lap. With a triumphant laugh, she bit deeply into her winning apple. “Told you it would work,” she said, mouth full as she thumbed her nose at Rouge.
“Wait.” 
Amy turned to look at Blaze, humming as she did so. “Yeah? You wanna learn more about the tradition too? I can tell you. I know the whole history, and I won’t be rude about it, unlike someone.” 
Blaze looked at the apple skin in Amy’s lap, brow furrowed. Amy could see her running her tongue along her teeth under her lips, looking between it and her. 
“How many people have a name that starts with, ‘S’?” 
Amy froze. 
“We do know at least three of them,” Rouge added, doing little to hide the smirk that grew across her face. “In fact, you’re sitting next to one of them.” 
Amy took one deep breath, then two, then three, but nothing stopped the pounding of blood in her ears. 
“Oh Amy, come on,” Rouge said, reaching out towards her. “Like, this thought had to have crossed your mind.” 
Amy stood up. 
“Amy!” 
She threw the apple peel into the fire with the rest of them, snatching her bag off the ground.
“Amy, no.” Blaze shook her head. “Please, just stay.” 
Amy shook her head, blinking away tears as she walked back to her car. 
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thepodcasthoard · 2 months
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The Ultimate Guide to Starting A Podcast [Checklist]
Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 l Part 5 l Part 6 l Part 7 l Part 8 l Part 9 l Part 10
The eleventh article Sydney gave me is an actionable list. The writer- Lestraundra Alfred- said she started a podcast in ten days by following it.
Determine your niche.
I know. Some of you who have been reading all the posts in this series are probably groaning right now at the repetition. I admit, as I was reading through them I was starting to almost be able to say the words in my head before I read them, like how I can quote movies I've seen a bunch of times.
But this is important- I mentioned before that it's better to be in the top ten of a smaller niche than top twenty of a broader one. But it's more than that- sites like spotify and apple podcasts use the niches you provide to categorize your show, and that categorization brings your podcast to those who are actually looking for similar things.
The article lists popular categories- comedy, news, TV shows and movies, and sports among them- so you can find inspiration in them and narrow your focus.
2. Identify your ideal listener
The article talks about going super specific with your listener avatar- age, job, education, income, other interests, hobbies, and where they live. This will let you think about what your perfect listener will think about your ideas and help you refine them.
3. Name your podcast and make a launch date
For the name, make sure you look it up a few times with variations so you don't accidentally use the same name as some other brand.
For the launch date, make sure to give yourself some time to do your preparations and recording, but not too much time that it's just procrastinating.
4. Format and schedule
There's a variety of formats, each with their own pros and cons. Interviews, co-hosts, and solo shows are just three.
The most common frequencies of publishing according to this article are weekly, bi-weekly (which I assume in this case means once every two weeks, not twice a week), and monthly. But the article also says consistency is key- don't do weekly for three weeks, and then not upload for two months.
5. Podcast host
Again, this is necessary because of internet jargon. An RSS feed is needed to upload to the actual directories where people can listen. The article lists a few via links which- as you all can probably guess by now- I won't add because I want to preserve their commissions. Plus, you'll probably want to read the article in its entirety to get all the details because I'm glossing over them to keep the big picture in sight.
6. Artwork
This article is linked, and it has a more in-depth guide on how to make artwork with examples. But this article recommends just browsing through your podcast listening site of choice and just looking at artwork, thinking about how yours will fit in.
7. Equipment
This article goes into the topic more in-depth, with specifics about what they personally recommend, but really a microphone, a computer, headphones, and recording and editing software are all you really need.
8. Create a trailer
Ah, finally, I can hear some of you think. A new step.
A trailer gives a new listener a chance to find out what your podcast is all about. So be sure to make it engaging and interesting.
9. Submit to directories
You'll be able to do this through your hosting site.
10. Start with three episodes
Another new step, yay! Not only does this give more content for listeners to really see if your podcast is a good fit for them, but it'll let your podcast get listens and other statistics more quickly. That means that the directory will read that and go 'oh! People really like this show. Let me move it to the front so more people can like it.' Your trailer shouldn't count in those three episodes.
11. Show notes
Yet another new step! Hooray! Show notes are basically really short blog posts that are under each episode and tailored to that specific episode. They're a good place for SEO (search engine optimization), and a way for avid listeners to follow the podcast on different sites, like your social media.
12. Get social media handles
Speaking of social media, you'll want these before you launch. This way you have them and can actually use them to promote yourself and the podcast. Domain names are included in this step.
13. Upload and schedule your three episodes
Once everything is edited and done, it's time to stick to your launch date you chose in step three and schedule through your hosting site to launch.
14. Market and celebrate
Now it's time to get the word out. You've worked so hard on this project, congratulations! An aside from me is to actually take time to celebrate. Don't rush right into more work, take the time to soak in your accomplishment, because it is an accomplishment.
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amiharana · 1 year
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BTS BOTW AU OMG WHAT??? pls share with the class immediately
LMFAODJFNKD it's honestly not even that interesting
back in 2019, i was writing for taegi week and the last day was a free day, and at the time i was still in my baby revalinker phase so i decided i wanted to write the most self-indulgent bts x botw au in which bts members took the places of botw characters. i actually had a tumblr post drafted to talk about this, but i guess we'll talk about it here now! in the case you are familiar with bts while also being a botw player, this could be of some interest to you.
i never actually got very far in writing it out (because i was 15 and school was beating my ass), but after reviewing the two unfinished drafts and the conceptual outlining style i do on every post, i remembered that i planned to rewrite the mount lanayru-calamity awakening memory with bts members as well as putting the revalink dynamic in there
Tumblr media
please don't laugh i was 15 when i wrote this LMFAODJFKFJKD i don't plan on showing you what the unfinished drafts look like because like i said, i never got very far in writing them so there's nothing of interest to really note in either of those
as you can from the pic, i wrote V/taehyung as revali and SUGA/yoongi as link. looking back on it now, i probably would not have chosen yoongi as link and i should have written taehyung as link and yoongi as revali because that makes more sense regarding their personalities, but i guess 15-year-old me was really set on that dynamic. other characters included:
RM/kim namjoon as princess zelda
park jimin as mipha
jeon jungkook as baby sidon LOL
j-hope/jung hoseok as daruk
jin/kim seokjin as urbosa
and *drumroll*
bang pd as king rhoam bosphoramus hyrule ✋😩
i'm going to assume most of my mutuals and followers are probably not familiar with bts, so i'll try to give you a quick rundown!
V (or kim taehyung) is one of the group's vocalists and is one of my biases, or favorite member :> he's been my bias since 2018 when i became a bts fan! (the other one is jungkook he's the one in my pfp KJDHFHJKD) he has this show recently called 'jinny's kitchen' but i haven't watched it yet because i've been busy with school 😭 but from the clips i've seen that shit is funnyyy. SUGA (or min yoongi) is one of the rappers and he's coming out with a new album called 'D-DAY' soon + just released a song called 'people pt 2' ft. iu! the first part of 'people' on his last album was a fawking banger.
revalink had to be taehyung and yoongi because this au was originally intended to be uploaded for taehyung and yoongi (taegi)'s ship week. i definitely didn't place them as revali and link correctly, but i think know why i made it that way? there used to be this huge stereotype against yoongi that he was really mean and cold-hearted, and i was and always have been against that stereotype because bro really isn't like that. he's a soft sweet and sensitive tangerine boy fr! and making yoongi as revali wouldn't help that cause so i did what had to be done. i do think that taehyung still a relatively good fit for revali though; they be dramatic gays fr
RM (or kim namjoon) is the leader of bts, one of the rappers, and is a really smart guy. bro has an IQ of 148 and was also once one of the top 1% of students in south korea. so naturally, i made him zelda, the figurehead of the champions and the representation of the triforce of wisdom. but i was thinking about this connection more the other day when i first was writing out the post to talk about this, and i think namjoon and botw zelda actually have quite a few parallels. if anyone is interested in hearing more, please send an ask or a dm or something because i don't wanna make this post longer 😭
jimin is one of the group's vocalists and is also an incredible dancer. he had a solo debut recently with the album 'face' and title track 'like crazy' which you guys should all check out! :) but the reason why i put jimin as mipha is because he studied contemporary dance in high school and his personal style of dance tends to be very fluid and graceful, and like. do y'all see the connection lmao. mipha, being a zora in a watery domain? thus also being very fluid and graceful in her movements? TEEHEE
jungkook is the youngest member of the group another one of the vocalists and dancers, is my boyfriend and is Thee Golden Boy of K-pop and also the world. sidon being a baby pre-calamity and also everyone in general both in-game and online being obsessed with how boyfriend sidon is, as well as how polite and goofy jungkook is... i think the connection between jungkook and sidon is very clearly there LOL i also just didn't know how to include him in the story because i felt that jungkook just didn't fit into the personality of the other champions. if i had the chance to rewrite this au, i would have had jungkook as link because jungkook is so Main Character Vibes, and then taekook (taehyung and jungkook) would literally be revalink
back then, i remember having a difficult time trying to place who would be daruk and urbosa, but i think i made the right call with hoseok and jin. j-hope (or jung hoseok) is one of bts's rappers and is known as the sunshine of the group because he's just so energetic and positive, and i think that definitely matches with daruk's jovial and encouraging disposition. jin (kim seokjin) is one of the vocalists and is the eldest in the group, and as the kind of like "older brother" figure, he takes care of everyone in the group in a way that's different from how namjoon is as the leader y'know? i think urbosa fills that role for the champions because i personally think she might be the oldest of the group (daruk gives man in his 50s lowkey so i'm like hmmm) and takes care of them in a way that isn't the same as leading.
as for king rhoam bosphoramus hyrule... bang pd (or producer bang sihyuk) is the founder of the company bts is under and is the chairman of the label that bts eventually created. he is, in that sense, the "guy who made bts." he kind of has this fatherly relationship to the rest of bts, but that's where the similarities between him and king rhoam end LOL because rhoam is kind of an asshole who puts too much pressure on zelda and assembles the champions as his own tools to save the country, while bang pd is just this super chill guy who unlike other kpop ceos tends to stay out of the limelight and really just has a passion for making good music. but i thought it would be funny to emphasize a fatherly relationship between namjoon and bang pd KDJHFDKF
there's so many implied dynamics that could go here between the bts members as champions. like for one, taehyung and jimin are regarded as soulmate-besties in the bts fandom, so the implication that revali (taehyung) and mipha (jimin) are soulmate-besties is Feeding tf out of my brainworms like hell yeah. daruk and urbosa shenanigans are gonna line up perfectly with hoseok and jin's dynamic. NAMJOON (zelda) HAVING FEELINGS FOR YOONGI (link)? also lines up, these hoes have been living together for 10+ years and namjoon was practically proposing to yoongi in that one 'respect' performance.
idk.... maybe i'll come back to this, workshop it, and actually write it one day haha!
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egg-emperor · 2 years
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While I love Mike Pollock I have seen some tweets of him suggesting that he just doesn't want to be known for his work as Eggman and wants to discuss his other works more, he also liked the tweets of Flynn saying the same thing, I feel bad cause I send him a compliment for Eggman, do you know some of his other works? would like to know his other characters
Yeah, he's been trying to emphasize that for a long time and I don't know why some people have a problem with that because of course he'd want people to check out his other work, instead of only acknowledging his Sonic-related stuff and acting like he's just Eggman no matter what he does and nothing more, overlooking tons of his other great work that's entirely separate from it and is absolutely worth checking out. It's great that you have an interest in doing so and I'm happy to help you get started. :D
I've looked at a ton of his stuff over the years but he has hundreds and hundreds so I still haven't seen them all but I try to check out everything that's available to me. I've heard him in a bunch of TV shows, video games, movies, audio dramas, commercials. I have a game where practically every elderly guy in the game has his voice, Just Cause 3 lol. I have a plush that's voiced by him too!
I first heard him in Sonic X, Viva Pinãta, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 show, and Pokemon around the same time because of 4Kids dubbing. My favorite singular other roles of his that I've heard have to be Langston Lickatoad, the Garbageman, and Adon Coborlwitz. Though he's got a ton of other great roles in a bunch of stuff that's also definitely worth checking out.
Here's what he commonly links on Twitter as a good way to see a lot of it:
That definitely doesn't have everything in it though. There's stuff that isn't supposed to be general public knowledge and other things that haven't been listed on here yet. But it's still one of the ideal places to look! I enjoy picking any character, looking into how to find and listen to it, and the joy of being like "there he is!" when I find his voice in there and get to hear more of his incredible talent hehe.
His pure audio stuff isn't on there, I found out about those through his Twitter and a number of them were available on Spotify and were linked throughout his Twitter.
You can listen to more of his audio with comedy bits, parodies, demos, and other fun stuff on his SoundCloud:
Looking around on his website is a good place for more information and links to more stuff:
He also has a big playlist on YouTube with more things he's been in that have been uploaded there, including commercials!:
Obviously, not all of them are here because he's done so many that haven't been uploaded and some of my favorites were made private by the brand uploaders and I'll always be sad that I can't hear it again lol. He also has some cool stuff in other playlists on his YouTube channel. I also recommend watching more interviews and panels with him uploaded on others' YouTube channels if you haven't because it's really interesting to hear him talk about his work and he's charismatic, funny, and entertaining. ^^
I also recommend putting on post notifications on his Twitter to keep up with him sharing some of his newest work when they're announced and released because they don't get listed on websites after. I have to save stuff to my Twitter bookmarks or else I can't find the information and content again!
And there you go! Have fun. 🌟✨💜
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lady-layton · 1 year
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hi! so I was combing thru ur PL tag, and I noticed u have a large collection of dvds/cds. i hope this doesnt come across as rude or imposing, but do you think it would be possible for you to "burn" and upload the videos/audio to youtube? highest priority has to be the interviews, esp with the seiyu, i don't think i've ever seen that ANYWHERE. even if most people can't understand the japanese, having an archive of this content allows us to archive the games, their development, and the fandom. second priority would probably be any commercials featuring cutscenes from the 3ds games, as they were never released in HD to this day. besides that, i have been able to find most of the CD releases online, but i was curious about the premium cd layton theme cover song. if you are worried about copyright law or just don't want to, that is understandable 👍 but as it stands, there is more and more layton content completely lost to time (like the flip phone exclusive official art and games) and without its preservation, the less and less there will be to celebrate as the anniversaries continue... i hope that's not too dramatic. as far as i can tell when it comes to copyright strikes, i uploaded layton game content to YouTube and never got any (i got one immediately over the utena anime) so i believe it is safe, but there are alternatives like gdrive etc. "burning" (copying) dvds is also very simple if you have a computer.
I REALLY really hope I don't come off as demanding. Ultimately it is 100% your decision. But the layton fandom of today (in its tiny size) would thank you. It also would be a nice way to look back in time, as I personally played all the games only in 2020. I'd love to know more about the process behind the development of the games in general, but as the fandom even at its peak was never huge (and bc its been 15 years...) very little of that has been recorded in western fandom, vs big IPs like Zelda or even Fire Emblem. It'd also be really cool to hear the thoughts of someone who was there when things WERE happening!
Regardless, I will respect whatever decision you make. Game (and game-adjacent) preservation matters a lot to me, but I do know how to take a "No". I hope you can understand my perspective however. 😔 While I don't think the fandom will ever fully revive (unless maybe we got a switch port of each trilogy like Ace Attorney), I hope the new generations of Layton lovers can appreciate each other as well as the old fandom they built upon. Thank you for hearing me out!
Hello!
First of all thank you so much for this ask (o´∀`o) To be honest my plan with buying these commercial DVDs in the beginning was to preserve a part of Professor Layton history. There is so much about Professor Layton that have disappeared over the years, since some fansites and blogs have shut down long ago. So I really want to save as much as I can of what is left.
I've been looking into transferring the trailers, interviews and such to some online archive in some way. Sadly I have not had the time to properly sit down and research how to do it more exactly, but I do have a close friend of mine who is willing to help. If I get them uploaded somewhere I will absolutely share the links through this blog! It would be even more fun if a subgroup would be willing to help out with texting some of the clips as well. I have managed to collect quite a lot of these DVD's since I last updated my collection, but I should have the following:
3 different DVDs for Curious Village
4 different DVDs for Pandora's Box
2 different DVDs for Lost Future
1 promotional DVD for Eternal Diva
3 different DVDs for Spectre's Call
3 different DVDs for Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney
1 DVD for Layton Brothers Mystery Room
1 DVD for Professor Layton and the Phantom Thief
1 for Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
1 for Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy
1 for Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy DX
I also have this one DVD from Code NEO from 2007 that I remember purchasing because it said to have some Layton content. But it got to me just now that I have never checked it out. Perhaps I should do so, so I know what is on that disc haha.
About the premium CD I have been pondering over uploading it as well. I'm not so sure how comfortable I am with sharing MP3s online, but since it's from quite an old era by now and not released outside of the premium disc I could perhaps make an exception.
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theindietrumpeter · 2 years
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Online and Recorded Auditions
Live auditions are one thing, online are a whole other kettle of fish... Worrying about travel and getting to the right place on time are replaced by worries about whether your internet connection is going to hold up, where your laptop charging cable is and whether your printer is working.
I've had the opportunity to take part in a couple of online auditions - both for cruise work. One of them was a follow up of a live audition and the other was the second part of a 2-stage process (recorded audition with prepared material and a sight-reading audition).
The pre-recorded section of the audition was straightforward - all I had to do was record myself playing the music they emailed to me with the backing track. Some of the music was notated, some was a chord chart to improvise a solo to give them a feel of what my playing was like over a few styles and roles (lead trumpet/second trumpet). The video could be filmed on my phone and it could be recorded in sections (i.e. each piece separately) and edited together. This may seem like effort however it means you don't end up ruining the entire thing for the sake of one or two notes - you can just rerecord that one piece. Once this was completed all I had to do was upload it as an unlisted video on YouTube and send them the link.
The online section of the audition - and this was the same for both - is also fairly straight forward if you are organised and prepared. For each audition I was given an audition time - obviously - and half an hour prior to the audition I was emailed the required music. The next job is to print the music, making sure it's all there, and then you have a bit of time to look through and tackle some bits of it before logging on to Zoom/Skype/whatever 5 minutes before the official time (this is not me being super organised, this was an audition requirement). It worked out at roughly 20 minutes practice time between receiving the music and the audition which is roughly 2 to 3 minutes on or one run through each piece. This may seem like not a lot - and you would be right in thinking that - however, if you are working on a ship you would only have one run through the pieces in a rehearsal with the cabaret act before the evening's performance so sight reading needs to be of a very high standard. When it was time for the audition I was let into the Zoom/Skype call and it was a case of 'Hi, nice to meet you, please play ~xyz piece~ ... thank you, now play ~abc piece~' until all of the required pieces had been performed. This was followed by a 'thank you for your time, we will be in touch to let you know how you got on' and that was it, audition over.
In my experience, it feels quite clinical, quite impersonal, but it's worth remembering that the folks running the auditions may have any number of candidates to get through in a day and it's nothing personal against you - they've just got a job to do.
My advice, should you have an online audition, is to make sure your printer is working and has plenty of ink, your internet connection is stable (perhaps use an ethernet cable instead of WiFi), and that your speakers, camera and microphone are set up properly well before your audition time. In terms of practicing sight reading, there are plenty of horn transcriptions (or bass or drums or piano etc.) out there on the internet so just download some, put the song on YouTube or Spotify or Apple Music or whatever system you use and just play along. Like anything, the more you do it, the better and more confident you get.
For the pre-records, make sure you've got good lighting and you're stood a good distance away from your phone's microphone to get the best sound you can. They're not looking for Howard Shore-esque videography but it's no good playing everything perfectly if they can't see or (most importantly) hear you because you're too far away or too close so it distorts or you're drowned out by the backing track. I suppose these are also valid points for your Skype/Zoom audition so bear them in mind for that too.
Best of luck if you are offered or are looking for auditions for cruise work or circus work or whatever!
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Your Call’s Very Important To Us. Please Hold.
The Revenge of Two Hands One Mouth Tour, O2 Academy Bristol, November 27 2013.
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kanmom51 · 3 years
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JM 20 April 2020 Vlive
Anon ask:
Wait was this JK in Jimin and RM's vlive? At 3:27 youtu. be/MWTKy6R7y0g?t=207 the way RM side eyes whoever starts humming and tries to start whistling over whoever it is. Sounds like JK. Its definitely not JM. Its someone in the room. You can tell by the way RM cut his eyes quick. BTW, if that is JK, why hide it? He not allowed to be in a live with RM & JM for some reason or was he waiting on JM and they didn't want anyone to know? BTW watch that entire video, its a good reminder of sus Jikook.
Jimin's Vlive 14 April 2020. Special guest - RM.
Your link.
Ok, let's talk about this Vlive anon.
This is JM's Vlive, that he 'invited' RM to join.
JM starts the Vlive by saying he invited RM to join him, but RM is already 13 minutes late, so he decided to start without him and is waiting for RM to arrive.
JM isn't alone in the room even prior to RM arriving. He keeps looking sideways, behind the camera.
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and:
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He is kind of singing the "come in, please"... Is he meaning the viewers or the person that was there with him?
JM does this several times, the looking at someone else there.
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He keeps looking sideways, smiles, giggles, being interested in something that is going on there off camera.
JM has the camera situated far away from him, to allow the bigger angle (to fit him and his late guest in). I mention this, because at some point, before RM arrives JM wants to read the comments but can't, as the camera is too far away from him, so he has to get up and close to the camera to read them saying how hard it is, again, looking sideways and giggling. Then he has a phone handed to him to be able to read the comments, by whom you may ask? Well, me too.
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All of this prior to RM arriving.
If JK was there, why not show him? This question keeps coming up time and time again. There can be several reasons for that, one of them, this being a JM & RM scheduled Vlive, and JK being there, perhaps waiting for JM or just lounging there is not a piece of information they want to share with the viewers.
RM arrives 5 minutes into the live. This is just as JM gets up to get a device to read the comments. JM got up to get a device, but sits back down without one.
In the meantime, RM arrived and is getting ready to join, and you can hear what seems to be whispering in the background.
JM gets back up again, gets close up to the camera to read the comments while waiting for RM to get ready.
Then JM is handed a phone to read the comments on, saying "thank you" to whomever it was that handed him that device.
At around 7:30-7:33 min. you hear a sound, kind of a "ah" and JM looks back behind the camera and continues to talk. To me it sounded like JK, call me crazy.
At this point RM comes in apologising he's late, and they get into their pre-planned Vlive.
Jimin says to RM he wants to make a slogan for their Vlive, telling him that fans have a nickname for them: Mini and Moni. Once again, showing just how much they are aware of what's going on in social media.
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RM is so funny. At some point he asks JM if this is streaming live, like what? He then says he thought JM was recording it, and turns to the camera to say hello, lol. Didn't he know they were going live? Obviously he knew the content was pre-planned, but maybe thought JM was recording and the was going to upload, idk.
Then at 11:53-11:56 min. RM is holding the whisk and asking what it's called. Someone says something in the background, not translated, sounding, again, like JK. Perhaps answering RM's question inadvertently or maybe not inadvertently because JM looks in his direction a second before he talks. And RM looks at whoever said it and kind of lingers there. This is clearly neither RM or JM saying the word.
Both keep looking at the other person there once in a while.
At 13:31-13:35 JM goes off camera to bring hot water. At some point he isn't talking and RM looks again in the direction of whoever was there and is acting kind of strange, uneasy, nervous. Then JM starts talking again and comes back. Did he stop to 'interact' with whoever was there? RM's reaction/behaviour was kind of sus at this point.
15:25 min. again, whoever is there must do something and they both look up at him, again, lingering.
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They both keep looking in that direction randomly. But it's clear there is someone there. This keeps going on all the way through the live.
19:37 min. approx. again, sounds like someone says something and they both look up at him.
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20:40 min. RM asks JM where he found the music he put on in the background from, and JM says he listens to it while doing the dishes, only to, once again, look in the direction of whoever it was that was there. Later on the dishwashing subject comes up again, JM insisting he is really good at washing the dishes, again, his gaze seems to find it's way in the direction that is not RM or the camera, lol.
At some point they are both struggling to read the comments, getting up closer, and I wonder what happened to that device JM had to read the comments on? Did it go back to it's rightful owner (cough, JK, cough)?
27:50 min. here comes in the humming.
Now let's get the context here. JM had kind of Jazzy music going on. He stops the music they talk about it and RM starts whistling it.
This could be JM humming, although it doesn't quite seem like it's him, doesn't really sound like his voice, and also the source of the humming seems to be from behind the camera.
But RM's reaction, that's what really makes me believe this isn't JM. The second the humming starts RM looks in that direction, the same direction where that certain other person seems to be throughout the live and starts to whistle quite loud immediately and looking into the camera, to perhaps cover over the humming?
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RM does whistle once in a while, but this specific instance was super suspicious.
You already know what I think about the identity of the person there. It's JK. Yes, it's JK. And yes, he is the one humming in the background.
29:35 min. RM looking, yet again, in the direction of that person (I think that by now we have established there is a person there and that I believe that person is JK), only to be followed by a sound off camera. Could have been the sound of a door closing. Perhaps the person that was in the room had to go, left the room and the door clicked close behind them.
30:52 min. RM says JM's arm is trembling. JM says how he is getting weaker, and then, comes the JK mentioning, because, how can we get through a JM Vlive without mentioning JK? Really quite impossible. JM says: "I've never stood against Jungkookie recently". RM answers "that's the same for all of us", lol.
End of the Vlive they have to get up to turn off the camera. That would answer the question if there was a staff member in the room, perhaps handling the camera, and that is the person they were looking to or at. The answer to that would be no. JM was the one handling the camera.
Just one more to add to the suspicious Vlives list.
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ukrfeminism · 2 years
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I am placing the text of this article behind a read more, or you can click through to the link above. Please exercise caution. TW for graphic descriptions of sexual abuse, including desecration of a corpse.
'My daughter was violated': Mother of woman raped in mortuary by necrophile David Fuller speaks out
When police family liaison officers knocked on the door, they looked visibly distressed.
Nevres Kemal, a social worker from north London, couldn't imagine what bad news they could possibly have. Her only daughter had died just over a year ago, she didn't have any other family.
The scene was similar to when, in July 2020, Nevres had been told her beloved Azra had fallen from a bridge in Kent suffering fatal injuries. She said what followed was like hearing the same terrible news all over again.
Warning: Contains descriptions that some readers may find distressing
The officers explained how Azra's dead body had been raped by a man while she'd been in the morgue in Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
It would emerge that Azra was one of at least 100 victims of a prolific offender, David Fuller, who had worked in the hospital trust as an electrical maintenance manager and got away with his crimes for years.
The victims ranged in age from nine to 100 years old.
Azra, 24, had died from trauma, with a dislocated arm, cracked ribs and a pelvis that was split in half. The detail you are about to read, of what happened to her after she died, is incredibly upsetting, but Nevres wants people to know.
'My daughter was violated hours after I left'
"I was told that my daughter had been violated... on three occasions in the mortuary," said Nevres.
"What does one think? How do you comprehend such a thing?"
The first attack on Azra happened only hours before Nevres herself had come to say farewell to her daughter in the mortuary - and it happened again hours after she left.
Nevres told me: "I had spent two hours in the mortuary sleeping with her. And that gave me some sort of comfort. Little did I know that my daughter had been violated prior to that day and the evening of that day.
"So, whilst I'm stroking my daughter's hair, sleeping on her hair, a man had... crawled all over her skin... And there's me kissing and cuddling and saying my last goodbyes."
She added: "And that is quite awful, quite awful, however, it is not Azra's shame. It is not my shame.
"Like women who are raped around the world they have a voice, Azra has a voice - I am speaking out for my daughter."
The horrific detail of this case isn't the only reason why this was perhaps the hardest interview I've ever done.
Azra and I were friends
She was my fixer on several stories I worked on at Sky News, helping me gain interviews with people from difficult backgrounds including drug mules and dealers. I wrote a tribute to her when she died. I've also been friends with her mother, Nevres, for over a decade.
Nevres was told that Fuller researched Azra online, he may well have read my tribute. He would photograph his victims' names on the mortuary record log and sometimes their identity tags.
He later told police that he only researched victims after the offending, rather than before. However, in relation to one name on his browser history, he couldn't explain why he had searched for her when, in the event, her body had been taken to a different morgue.
Fuller used a compact digital camera to film his crimes. He would then upload the videos to his home computer, storing the footage in digital folders that he would sometimes title with the victim's name.
Officers who searched his home found a homemade box had been attached to the back of drawers within a cupboard. Inside the box were four hard drives with five terabytes of data storage.
The court in Maidstone was told they contained "a library of unimaginable sexual depravity," all filmed in the mortuaries of the two hospitals at which he worked, first the Kent and Sussex Hospital, where he worked from 1989, and then the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, to which he moved in 2010.
Fuller was brazen
He first assaulted Azra for sixteen minutes on 20 July 2020, a decade after he'd first arrived in the hospital. The second time was the next day when Nevres visited - that evening he was with Azra for twenty-three minutes. Two days later he came back to abuse her again for thirty-five minutes.
These assaults didn't happen in the dead of night - the first occasion was at 4.50pm and the second 9.20pm, the third, 6.15pm.
"He seemed very confident, to spend so much time with Azra," said Nevres. "Late afternoon, early evening - he was very brazen."
To understand how this could happen, Nevres demanded a meeting with the senior staff of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which they agreed to in mid-October.
She discovered that as an electrical maintenance worker he had some legitimate reasons to access the mortuary, and this meant he had his own swipe card.
The mortuary had five staff, who tended to work from 8am to 4pm. Fuller's shifts were 11am to 7pm. So, his attacks took place during that window at the latter part of his shift.
Of course, hospital porters could come down to the mortuary with new bodies at any time of the day. However, Fuller had worked out that no one came into the separate post-mortem room out of hours. The fridge doors in the centre of the mortuary open onto both rooms.
He was able to enter the post-mortem area through the clinical office. The configuration of the rooms was such that he could get in and leave unnoticed by any porter who happened to enter the mortuary on the other side of the fridges, while he was there.
No CCTV in the post-mortem room
Unlike other areas of the mortuary, there was no CCTV in the post-mortem room, which is usual practice in many hospitals to preserve the dignity of patients during post-mortem. So he could open the fridge doors to access bodies, because, whilst they were locked in the receiving area, they were unlocked in the post-mortem room.
There are CCTV cameras in the corridors leading to the mortuary, and the swipe card system keeps a log of people coming and going in case there is an incident, however, these logs were not checked to see if any staff member was making an unusual number of unnecessary journeys into the area.
"He had entered the morgue and autopsy area thousands of times, not hundreds, thousands," said Nevres, "and no one ever stopped him or asked what's this guy doing here?"
"I'm told he was the man to go to. He always made himself available to the mortuary staff. They thought he was a great guy and basically, he groomed them. They became compliant and they never questioned him."
An NHS trust spokesman told me that Fuller would have had many legitimate reasons to visit the morgue - for example temperature checking the fridges.
The court was told: "CCTV from the mortuary area shows that when on cameras he carried items or performed actions that would afford a legitimate explanation for his presence."
But Nevres feels security was lax
She told me: "We have swipe cards and cameras for a reason. How could they not have records that are automatically exposed to managerial people at the NHS trust?
"No one checked. It was so simple. He would actually abuse women while porters were bringing in bodies."
On meeting the Chief Executive of the Trust, Miles Scott, Nevres said her first question was "why are you still here?"
She added: "His response was it's up to the board and he had the backing of the board, and I told him; 'the victim's families are the board - I am the board'.
"I believe he needs to resign," said Nevres.
"He should ask the victims 'do you think I'm the best person to be managing this hospital trust?' If you are truly sorry, you would step aside."
As a social worker, Nevres blew the whistle on Haringey council over the baby-P scandal in 2007 and said as someone involved in the protection of children she would resign if something like this happened on her watch.
Since Fuller's arrest, the trust has asked Sir Jonathan Michael to chair an independent investigation into whether anything more could have been done.
A maximum sentence of a few years
Another thing that has shocked Nevres is the length of sentencing for people who commit this kind of crime. The law attached to Fuller's crimes is section 70 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 - penetration of a dead body - for which the maximum sentence is two years imprisonment.
He also pleaded guilty to section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 - extreme pornography involving a dead body - which can carry a sentence of three years.
Nevres believes there should be a clearer law of necrophilia with much greater punishment for someone who commits a crime on this scale, similar to the sentencing of a rape victim, which can be between 4 and 19 years for each victim.
She said: "Men and women up and down the country will be appalled by what they are reading. And I remind them that if this was your loved one you would roar with rage - and I am silently roaring and I am beseeching people who make laws to create a law that this becomes an offence and the appropriate sentence is passed down.
"We need to respect the dead and this must never happen again."
Nevres was already dissatisfied with the investigation by Kent police into her daughter's death. Azra died after falling through a gap between two sides of the A21 dual carriageway near Tonbridge in Kent.
She and a male passenger had been trying to get help after their car caught fire. Essex police have been investigating whether Kent police did a thorough enough investigation into exactly what happened.
So, Nevres was already distrustful of the authorities and police when they came knocking on her door a second time.
Azra was an extraordinary human
Like her mother, Azra was someone who had strong feelings about injustice and, in particular, the protection of women. She would stand her ground against anyone. Once, after meeting a domestic violence victim, she went around the couple's house and told the man to get out.
"Azra was an extraordinary human being," said Nevres.
"She lived for 24 years, but she touched so many people. She was compassionate, warm. An LSE law graduate. She became a beautiful woman and didn't see any barriers. She was individualistic and smart. She lived life to the full. She was my only child.
"I've tried to protect Azra all my life and when she was really helpless, lying there still being raped and abused - she couldn't scream out, couldn't call me, she couldn't call the police.
"But I will ensure her voice is heard and that will be my mission."
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gear-project · 3 years
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Hey there! I've played a good deal of fighting games before and used to love Xrd. I only ever played Faust seriously because I thought he was cool and funny. Strive came along and I'm absolutely addicted and started uploading combo videos for him to the dustloop wiki. I've always loved combos and remember getting frustrated as hell with trying to learn them with no videos or specific advice. I want to provide people with something to alleviate this. Do you have any advice on the best ways to build and preserve this type of knowledge? I also started getting very interested in the lore, especially with Faust since he seems so different in Strive. I've heard so many hear-say theories as to why, but no real solid information. I feel like the personality of his character helped me through one of my greatest hardships in life recently, and I want to know more about him and the world around him to truly understand. Thank you very much in advance, and I wish you well! :)
While I'm no expert at maintaining Wikis, I do know that Dustloop Wiki itself has been a rather major authority on Guilty Gear combos.
But above all else they have listed what is known as "combo theory".
Usually it's a footnote that describes how each individual character's combos work, usually listing every single normal you could start a combo with, the practicality of such, the situations you can get with counter-hits and regular confirms, guard-string theory, and overall methods of how to build your own combos and offense.
In fact I'll give Sol's Combo Theory page here, as an example.
Sol Badguy Combo Theory (Click the Link)
BUT... that's just ONE WAY of sharing and preserving the information.
As it just so happens ARC System Works has been planning a "Combo Sharing" mechanic in Training Mode that lets players share and upload their unique combo recipes to Guilty Gear Strive's Servers for people to Download and practice with!
Combo Recipes in GGStrive have gotten especially technical since they even list commands that act as "negative edge" (buttons that activate on release, not press, but also moves that don't make contact during a combo).
Here's an example of some older GGXrd Combo Recipes!
youtube
Compare that with more modern GGStrive Combos (Jack-O' as an example!)
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Suffice to say that eventually GGStrive itself will one day support a wide variety of services: combo recipes to share online, replays with input history, and even a "take control" feature for Replay Theater (it basically lets you pause a replay and take control of a situation to see if you can overcome the situation or make a better decision for future). It really is like Axl Low's Time Travelling ability!
The PC version of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core already has the "Take Control" function implemented in its Replay system, so later games (and updates) are expected to follow suit!
As for Faust's story itself... I've had character tags for him for a while now, but you can always use the Tumblr search function and chrono function for all the other times I've mentioned him as well!
https://gear-project.tumblr.com/tagged/Faust
https://gear-project.tumblr.com/tagged/Dr.+Baldhead
https://gear-project.tumblr.com/search/Faust
https://gear-project.tumblr.com/tagged/Faust/chrono
https://gear-project.tumblr.com/tagged/Dr.+Baldhead/chrono
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somarsword · 3 years
Text
Sleep on the Floor - Part 4
ROGER TAYLOR X READER
Hiiiii! Thank you so much for reading my fic, I didn't expect anyone to read it to be honest, so I'm really happy to know that others enjoy what I make. Have I mentioned that this fic is somewhat of a slowburn? If I haven’t, sorry HAHAHAHA. Oh by the way, not sure if anyone else is interested but if you want to be tagged in the following updates, don’t be shy to ask <3
Enjoy the read lovelies :)
picture uploaded by “wattpad” on pinterest (link https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/834221530970520530/?nic_v2=1a68Q0gFM)
WARNING: none. cursing?
word count: 1.2k words
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February 17, 1976 - Saginaw
“You want some?” Bill asks, holding up a half eaten granola bar in front of you.
“I’m good” declining his offer, watching as he messily chews. He shrugs, retracting his hand and taking another bite.
You look away, glancing back down at the papers spread out on the table. You sigh sadly. There was so much shit to sort through. When Jim said he needed help organizing the finances, he actually meant he needed someone to do it for him.
“You know you’re allowed to take breaks, right?” Roger says, popping into the room. This makes you jump slightly, dropping the pen you were previously holding.
“Jesus. Can you knock?” you huff out as you reach down to grab the pen. This only causes Roger to let out a chuckle.
“Oh by the way, Crystal’s looking for you” Roger addresses Bill as he plops down on the couch behind you.
“What for?” Bill asks, mouth still stuffed with food.
“Not sure. Something about carrying equipment I think” Roger responds. Bill hums in response, taking the final bite of the granola bar and pushing his chair back.
“See ya later Y/n” he says, already walking towards the door. You smile and wave goodbye before he slips out of the room, leaving you and Roger behind.
Returning your attention towards the paperwork, you resume working, falling back to routine. You nearly forget Roger was in the room with you, too engrossed in fixing the finances, until he starts throwing tiny paper balls at the back of your head. You try your best to ignore it, wanting to finish the task at hand, but it’s just too distracting.
“Yes Roger?” you ask exasperated at his attempts to gain your attention. You set down your pen and turn your head to face him.
“I’m hungry” he whines, causing you to roll your eyes and turn back around.
“Roger, I’m your accountant, not your assistant. It's not my job to make sure you’re fed.” You hear the springs of the couch squeak as he sits up.
“That’s not what I meant.” he groans, moving to stand next to you. You look up at him, brow raised as you silently ask what he meant.
“Well, you see, I’m hungry and there’s this diner down the street I’ve been meaning to go to before we leave Saginaw.” he says.
“Then go?” you say, slightly confused by his explanation.
“I mean I could do that, but I hate eating alone.” he says.
Oh. Oh!
“What about the boys?” you ask, slightly apprehensive, not entirely sure if he was actually inviting you or was just expressing his thoughts.
“John’s asleep, Brian’s busy being bitchy towards me, and Fred’s… actually I don’t even know where that man is” He says, listing them out. “Besides, I know you haven’t eaten since 9 this morning, it’s nearly 4pm. You’re gonna digest yourself if you don’t put anything in it soon. So what d'you say, wanna come?”
You let out a light laugh at his last sentence.
“Actually scratch that. You’re coming, whether you like it or not Miss Y/n L/n” he says in mock-command, causing you to roll your eyes but smile.
“Alright, give me 2 minutes to fix these then we’ll go” you reply, already beginning to clean up. He nods, a huge grin plastered on his face. He leaves you to stand by the door, distracting himself with the movie playing on a television from the other room as he waits for you.
You make quick work in fixing everything and securing it.
“Alright, let’s go”
Both of you exit the building, the noise of people moving around in preparation for tomorrow’s concert immediately disappearing. You pause, turning to face Roger.
“Lead the way drummer boy” you say, a light tease to your tone. He playfully rolls his eyes at this but takes the lead.
You walk quietly next to him, taking in your surroundings. The scenery was much different in contrast to New York. It was less chaotic. The streets weren’t littered with bustling men and women rushing to be everywhere and anywhere all at once.
"You know, you've been with us for about a week now and I've yet to learn anything about you." Roger snapping you out of your thoughts. You face him for a brief moment before returning your gaze on your surroundings.
"Well, what do you want to know?" you ask, playing with the small strip of leather peeling from your purse.
"Anything, really. But I guess let's start simple. What's your favourite food?" You groan at his question.
"That is anything but simple. I have way too much to choose from" you complain, causing him to laugh.
"Well then, your top 3" he says.
••• -•- •• •--•
The aroma of the diner is intoxicating as you step in. A wave of nostalgia washes over you from the familiar smell. You try, but fail, to hide the smile that’s crept unto your face as you take a seat by the window.
“Well aren’t you awfully giddy?” Roger comments as he stares at you bouncing on the chair. You shrug but your smile widens.
“How odd is it if I say you are currently my favourite person?” You suddenly blurt out, not thinking clearly from the overwhelming joy you were feeling.
“I mean, nothing I haven’t heard before” Roger shrugs jokingly, cheekily smiling. This causes you to roll your eyes, a rush of blood reddening your cheeks.
“Scratch that, I take it back you cocky bastard” You mumble, turning away to hide your flushed face. He lets out a hearty laugh, leaning back onto his chair.
“May I ask why?” he asks you once he stops laughing.
“Well-” you stop, thinking about the answer you had before shaking your head. “Nevermind.”
“Oh c’mon! You can’t just say something like that without explanation, the mystery will eat at me.” he whines, waving his hands around. You let out a light laugh, rolling your eyes playfully before resigning to give in to his request.
“It’s just uh… I guess I’ve missed this? I haven’t been to a diner in years.” You say softly, playing with the edge of the menu. “Although that's not exactly the reason. Back in New York, I lost myself. I was okay with the life I lived, but it was never fulfilling. I mean, all I ever had time for was work and...Simon?” You finally lift your gaze to make eye contact with him. He made no reaction, but it was clear to see he was listening intently.
"When I took off, I had no idea what the fuck I was actually doing. It's been so long since I took hold of the reins in my life. It felt more like Simon was leading me more than I was leading myself. You helped me a lot more than you know. Meeting you that night, although it may have been an accident, was the best thing that's ever happened to me." You smile brightly at him.
"So thank you." and as you stare across the table towards the golden haired man, you can't help but linger your gaze on the smile that he gives. A small action that holds the weight of a thousand words.
taglist: @anotheronewritesthedust1​
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beatsfortheillperth · 3 years
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Words with Jetson
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Our next interview is with a producer and rapper out of a beautiful place known as Tauranga, in New Zealand, This creative is known as Jetson.
He happens to be one of my cat, Rain's personal favourites for sleep time and regardless of the amount of thumping bass Jetson's music creates and picture frames it knocks over, I understand why he sleeps so sweetly.
Probably a lot to do with the fact that bass has rhythm, just like the sweet sweet words Jetson correlates with his word-plays in tracks such as "Milk" and "SENSEI". Not only impressing cats, Jetson has made moves and connections beyond the long white cloud, proving isolation doesn't always silence brilliance. Jetson brings words any generation can hold some sort of relevance to, words that allow one to notice life moves fast and slow and sometimes you just have to chill and become an observer rather than an instigator.
This is something I feel Jetson has accomplished with his rather low-key approach to releases and interviews.
Jetson is a natural, a true prodigy of sound and a sharer of moods, and to me, is a reminder that with a little bit of passion and persistence, great things can happen, whatever your field.
Jetson’s collective and label - Chill Children is evidence of that, as through it , Jetson is able to work and release with producers and beat-makers all over the globe.
emo the optimist, BACKWHEN, fuyu, eets, and junyii are just some of the diverse talents working with Chill Children and everyone on the catalogue are game-changers that make music that’s anointed in chills. 
Creators that push boundaries and portray emotion through sound in the most soothing way, one must check Chill Children.
So with that I hope you enjoy rare words with the nuance wonder, and in his own words.
Sit back, relax, get baked, create, f**k it.
Enjoy and much love.
Hey man thanks for the opportunity to share words. Let's start with a few random quick questions to get things going. Favourite Beverage: Lemon water. Favourite thing to do in your down-time: Make music/skate. Views on Reincarnation: It will be cool if it is true but I guess it doesn't really change anything if it is 🤷‍♂️ Favourite Food: Sushi. Favourite Album of All Time: Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders A song to break it down to: Ethereal & Playboi Carti - Beef A song to chill to: Durand Jones & The Indications - Cruising to the park Do you prefer Sunrise? or Sunset? Why?: Sunset, because I'm never awake for sunrise. A childhood memory in regards to music: I remember saving up to buy Graduation by Kanye West and listening to that shit front to back for weeks straight. Favourite Place to be: Probably on an island.
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Thanks for that, so let's start by asking what inspires you to produce and not only produce but continually produce, what to me is an array of tunes fitting so many genres?
Do you have a set of goals in place when you release a track or do you just hit upload and just hope people are feeling your sound?
What I like to listen to is constantly changing so I like to challenge myself to try and make the things that I'm inspired by.
I like to think that you never know what you're gonna get when you listen to my music but I've still got so much to learn and experiment with. I just try have fun with it and not think about it too much.
How long have you been producing music, and what did you find was hardest to get the hang of when it first came to producing beats?
I had no music theory knowledge or anything when I started making beats (I still don't have much) so there was a lot to learn right away.
Probably the hardest thing that I still battle with is knowing what you should release, what you shouldn't etc. It's hard to balance knowing when something is finished and when it still needs work.
Could you give a quick run-through of the process you follow when it comes to making a beat?
I try to change my process as much as I can to keep things fresh and fun for myself. But I really enjoy hearing a sample somewhere like keys, a quote or a rapper I want to remix, then I start working with that piece and see where it goes.
I'll mess around with the beat for a while and sometimes a track comes out. It can take one day, it can take months. Just depends.
Oldies are always goodies in my books and I have to mention your "bumps from 2014" mixtape, it truly is something special.
What inspired those little bumps? What were you doing back then? Also, can you remember the mood you were in when you made them?
I'm glad you like it haha. That was when I really had no clue what I was doing in terms of making beats, I was making all of those 'off the grid' in Ableton so I was placing drums in random places, I had no idea what bpm the samples were or anything. I really didn't know wtf I was doing, just going off of a vibe. 
My mood was really just being excited about making music, I was living in the basement at my mum's house blasting beats on the speakers all day.
[bumps from 2014] - https://soundcloud.com/sleepgodd/bumps-from-2014
You are also a rapper. My favourite NZ rapper to be more precise so thank you for the vibes you create. How did you find out you had it in you to rap and how old were you?
Damn, I appreciate that ✌️ I started rapping with a friend of mine, Jesse aka j cafe when we were around 20. We'd sit in my room smoking weed, and free-styling over beats on Soundcloud all night. 
Then we decided to make a track, so we found a beat and jumped in the closet to record some vocals on the laptop microphone.
We put it up on Soundcloud and I've been addicted to making music ever since.
Link to j cafe’s Soundcloud here - https://soundcloud.com/j-cafe
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Cover art for Jetson’s 2019 rap release - bluntscraps
Album cover art by Takuroh Toyama
When did you first start rapping in front of others? What did it feel like in the beginning compared to now when you perform live?
I was insanely nervous the first time I ever did anything live and that feeling really hasn't left me lol.
Except now I know how to deal with nerves a bit better and actually enjoy the whole experience of doing something live.
I definitely think I'm a lot better now than my first time doing it, but I still kinda suck 😂 Staying on topic with your rapping, material-wise you have mad skills, your music is forever helping me chill out so thank you.
When did you start writing down your words and turning them into structured songs? Do you have any other artists that inspire your writing style?
When I was younger I really liked the flow of rappers rather than what they were actually saying.
Dudes like MF Doom and Earl Sweatshirt really influenced me at the start wanting to come up with lines that were catchy and different.
To form an actual track I usually just mumble over beats to get the flow, then I start placing words in the spots where I think they fit.
Does your family know you make music? If so what do they think of it, any dance parties in the Jetson Family Household? 
My immediate family all know and support my music. My mum used to have one of my tracks as her ringtone for years lol.
No jetson dance parties yet, but seems like every year more people in my extended family know about my music.
You were also a member of NZ Duo, Chill Children of which you rap and produce with yet another kiwi talent, both having low-key approaches when it comes to presenting yourselves through social media. What happened with that?
Me and J Cafe started Chill Children as a rap project in the early days but we moved to different places in the world and started doing our own solo projects so things sort of stopped happening with it.
I still credit those times with really getting me started on music though. He's still making dope shit and we'll probably link up on a track soon.
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So then it became a sort of collective community, and through your Chill Children Soundcloud, you allow a platform for other artists to have their music heard.
Much Love on the concept, What inspired you to start sharing other artists music and what keeps you sharing? I'm very grateful btw, too many gems.
I work on music a lot with my friend emo the optimist (aka kodama) and we always wanted to run a label/collective kind of thing so we could release music from artists that we really liked.
After me and Jesse started doing our own thing, Chill Children seemed like the perfect place to start doing that.
It's one of my favorite things to work on as we have a hand in working with the artists on every release. I just love that we're able to share so much music that we really like with the world.
Check Chill Children here -
Bandcamp - https://chillchildren.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/chillchildren
Instagram - @chillchildren
Any new Chill Children material we should keep an eye out for?
We always have new music from new artists dropping so definitely follow our instagram/twitter if you want to stay updated on it.
We're currently working on a phonk compilation with guys like DJ Yung Vamp, Genshin etc. It's gonna be crazy 🤯
Back to your solo releases through your alias Jetson. What made you want to start putting out your material alone? Also, do you have a favourite Jetson release?
I really felt like I had to release music solo to see what I could do.
I've learned so much about myself through that process, became more confident and a better musician.
Probably my favorite rap track I've made is called 'Escape'.
Not many people have heard it but it's on Spotify and other places.
My favorite beat I've made is probably 'dylan rieder'.
Have to ask, are you working on any new releases we should keep an ear out for? If so, what can we expect with your coming releases?
I just released an album on Bandcamp called THROWED TAPES which was really influenced by DJ screw and other phonk producers.
I'm working on a lofi R&B tape for Bandcamp, a lofi beat tape, and I really want to release a rap EP.
Who knows when those will come out though haha
Taking it back a little to your rapping again I have to mention "Milk". What inspires the words in this track?
Also please share the story behind your track "Melancholy"? The words are somewhat mesmerizing, thank you!
With milk, I just heard the beat from bsd.u and really wanted to make something weird that just followed the flow of the beat.
On melancholy I tried to think about what I was saying a little more. The instrumental is so introspective and smooth I knew I had to come correct on it.
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THROWED TAPES By Jetson, released August, 27, 2020
Musical Recommendations?
junyii - emo the optimist - knxwledge - j cafe - jesse james solomon - the smiths - dj yung vamp - shuggie otis - hm surf - alicks - MIKE - baccyard - meraki soul - steve hiett I could go on for days though lol
Creatives to keep an eye out for in music and art? Takuroh Toyama (photography) Moebius (visual art) Steve Hiett (photography/music) Any Last Words?
It really trips me out that people enjoy something I love to do so much.
So just thank you for vibing with me, I have a lot more to share ✌️
Support Jetson here -
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/highimjetson
Bandcamp - https://jetsonbumps.bandcamp.com/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/2bkf2PmiVyfCqg2uzIFIqJ
Twitter - https://twitter.com/jetsonbumps
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jetsonn/?hl=en
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Milk by Jetson (Production by bsd.u)
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danseikoe · 4 years
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What I've been listening to ★part 1:
Hey there! I hope you’re all keeping safe. Due to life and things, I was out of the loop regarding the otome community and releases, however due to determination to pursue my old hobbies I'm trying to get back into the swing of things because otome CDs are a fun way to pass time or partake in fantasy immersion when the going gets tough! While I haven’t made any big purchases in a while, I’ve been keeping up with some VAs on Youtube and thought I’d share what I’ve been listening to. There’s also a mini CD review☆
Here's a short list of some of the Youtubers who do 音フェチ (literally means sound fetish but I believe this is just how ASMR is referred to in casual Japanese) or drama situations that I’m currently into. The content and links are nsfw or may be triggering, so please exercise caution when reading The list contains both native English and Japanese speakers. 
SeikyuuVA (English)
Going through SeikyuuVAs catalog made me delay actually writing this properly for about an hour, every upload is worth checking out!  He uploads ASMR and full-fleshed situation dramas. His vocal range (and situations!) range from sweet and light hearted-boy-next door to more explicit, throaty and extremely dominant styles. 
Another thing that pulled me into his channel is that he will do immersive situations with the listener as various “anime husbands” so if you have a favorite character you want to hear brought to life, you're in for a treat. I believe he's American or Canadian, though a fun thing he does is throw in Japanese セリフ(dialogue) which is lovely for those of us who have a kink for accents and foreign languages. His sfw audios are also wonderful! I have to add that he incorporates lots of background noises into his work that makes his recordings that much more immersive without being overwhelming or overpowering his lines! 
Seikyuu uploads his recordings onto Youtube, but it’s possible to buy nsfw versions on DLsite or support him on patreon as well! I was so enamored with his voices and style that I had to make a Patreon to support him. 
Recommended audio ☆Komaeda Nagito ASMR
Ryou Sasaki (Japanese)
His voice is so 萌えit hurts. Actually, his online persona is so sugary and sweet and a welcome addition to what I normally listen to! His voice reminds me of Yuki Kaji, or a younger friend you just wanna give head pats to!! Ryou Sasaki primarily uploads ASMR videos based on various boyfriend x listener scenarios, though he also is active on twitch and does gaming livestreams. I think it's fun how he isn't afraid to express a fondness for cute things, though whether that is just his personality or due to how prevalent “kawaii culture” is in japan, idk! It may sound weird, but I like the breathiness that Ryou Sasaki’s voice carries, if that makes sense?? (w) like in the same vein as Ariana Grande’s speaking voice, haha. Most of his work on his YouTube channel are sfw, though a few are a little ~spicy~
For those who enjoy roleplays by performers who have a light and fluffy voice, he's your guy.
Recommended audio ★ “A Tsundere Boyfriend Absorbed in His Vidya “ a short and cute recording . English captions available. 
twitter 
DEXVA (English)
A voice actor on Youtube I've recently just subscribed to! His earliest posting is from six months back but he has already amassed 12k followers which seems to be a testament of his talents.  I'm still going through their channel, but I can already tell you that he takes a lot of care in the crafting of his recordings~ Also uses 3D audio! His uploads consist on immersive ASMR recordings involving the listener as well. but he’s also a talented artist and posts narrated speed drawings. 
Recommended audio ★ TW: Yandere and associated themes (boiiiiii I I love yanderes and this was the best English voice yandere I’ve heard in a minute, couldn't stop smiling listening to this. The situation was incredibly creepy (in a good way!!)  and realistic with excellent bgm and sfx. 
Mini CD Review ★
TW: Yandere and other associated triggers
Title: ナース男子 ~病み系看護士編~ (R-18)🔞
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              illustration: 砂月
Publisher: Little Bird Studio
CV: Aouma Yukke
This is the second in a series revolving around male nurses who are all yandere. I purchased this CD late last year and actually lost access to the account that had this downloaded (rip) but from memory I can recall that I enjoyed this CD. The story involves you, a patient in a hospital and a male nurse who's fallen for you while treating you. He comes to you while you're sleeping, professes his love for you, and it then it gets more explicit. I do recall the initial encounter being non-con, so please exercise caution when listening. There’s also no sparring on the l e w d sound effects. I really like how polite and soft spoken the nurse is and then his switch to loony-tunes, screechy voice scary boi that’s so characteristic in yandere, though it never gets old. 
Thank you for reading! Happy listening!  ꒰* ॢꈍ◡ꈍ ॢ꒱.
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yournewapartment · 5 years
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Hullo! So, this isn't specifically life advice. But I was wondering how did you guys start your podcast? I've been wanting to do one since last year, but was never able to have the proper equipment, people to do it with, etc...Any advice?
How to Start A Podcast
Choose a podcast hosting service. I use Buzzsprout because it was the first one that came up when I searched for podcast hosting services. A podcast hosting service is very similar to Icloud storage. You’re given a small amount of air time for free, and then you pay a monthly fee for any additional hours you want. It’s very reasonable. Right now I’m paying for 6 hours a month, and thankfully that fee is covered by my lovely patrons!
I believe Buzzsprout gives you two hours for free. If you’re testing the waters and not sure that you want to make this sort of commitment, register and release an episode or two, see if it works for you. If you’re more serious, you will need to start on one of the paid plans. 
Create podcast artwork. You cannot even upload a podcast episode to any podcast streaming services without cover artwork, a description, and an actual episode recorded. Uploading is pretty self-explanatory, all of the podcast hosting services have step by step instructions. Make sure to follow the specific artwork dimensions specified by your hosting service!
Create theme music. I have not done this. I don’t think I’ll ever do this? But you may want to! It’s super important that the music is either something you’ve created or something that the creator has given you specific permission to use. Hosting services do care about copyright material. 
Record an episode. I wasn’t sure if I was really going to do this, so I didn’t buy anything for the first month I was recording episodes! I just recorded using Garageband. Eventually I did invest in a Blue Yeti Mic, with the knowledge that after two months, my Patrons will have paid for it in full. One month left and it will be paid off! This is the home podcast standard mic! 
Definitely listen to some of my earlier episodes in comparison with the ones I’ve released recently, you can really hear the audio quality difference! But again, I’m not sure how worthwhile it is to spend lots of money unless you’re 100% sure this is something you want to do. 
Also- consider recording in your closet or in a small other room that is not echo-y. It’s not glamorous, but it does make a noticeable difference in your audio quality.
Approval by your hosting service. Before you can release your first episode out into the world, it has to go through a long approval process. The first step of this process is submitting you finished episode for approval by your podcast hosting service. Mine approved my podcast a few hours after I sent it in. Someone actually has to listen to your entire first episode to make sure it doesn’t have super explicit content (they give examples of what this is). If your podcast has explicit content, that’s fine, you just have to specify that. But some particularly gruesome content is not allowed, hopefully nothing you would ever want to record!
Please note: Your podcast hosting service approving your episode does not mean that your episode is now available on all streaming platforms, each streaming platform has a different approval process. Being approved by your podcast streaming service just means that you’re approved by them. Which is a start!
Buzzsprout gives each podcast an individual webpage with a media player. Listeners can visit your podcast website directly and listen to any episode you upload there, and they can also subscribe through Buzzsprout. I actually get more plays through Buzzsprout itself than Itunes or Spotify, so I always send a link to my latest episode on my blog. Here is my site. 
Approval by streaming services. Once you’re approved by your podcast hosting service, you can then apply to be approved by podcast streaming services. Buzzsprout has submission forms linked on your podcast admin page as well as step by step instructions on how to submit your podcast to various different streaming services. I applied to Apple, Spotify and Google. Google approved me within a couple hours, Apple approved me a week and a half later, and Spotify approved me but never sent me an email stating I’d been approved. It does not cost any money to be approved or to have your content appear on any of these streaming platforms.
If you have a listener who uses a smaller less popular podcasting app (like pocketcast) they can add your podcast stream directly on it. The stream is displayed on your podcast website.
Get familiar with your admin panel. I upload episodes weeks ahead of time and schedule them for release at later dates. I don’t personally use Spotify or Google Podcasts, but I know Apple releases your episode within four hours of you formally publishing it through your podcast host. Once your podcast is approved by a streaming service, it’s worthwhile to look at how the podcast displays on that streaming service. I had my podcast description in the wrong place when Apple did finally publish my first episode, and had to quickly go on and edit the podcast. Edits also take time to display on streaming services. 
Zencastr? Zencastr is a free service (it does have premium options which I don’t bother with) that is super helpful when recording with people who live far away or who don’t have professional equipment. I log on, create a track, and share the link with a guest. The guest then logs on. They don’t have to download anything! Zencastr records everybody’s audio on a separate track, stores it in the cloud, and then you can download, edit, and mix it as you like. It also saves episodes you record so that if you’re stupid and delete something you’re not supposed to, you can just go back in and download the wav/mp3 file. Again, it’s free, so there is a storage space limit. But it’s been a serious lifesaver for me!
Editing software? Not something I’ve invested in at this point. Maybe in the future. I use Garageband and it works well enough for me.
I have so much fun recording Your New Apartment the podcast with all of my wonderful guests! Please listen to it. I pour my heart out on it! It’s available on all of your favorite streaming services.
Please write me a review on Itunes. Please consider supporting me on Patreon! Or buy some Your New Apartment merch from my Society6. My Patrons are incredible and have literally paid for my podcast to be hosted as well as paid for my microphone. I can’t thank them enough for all of their love and support.
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